Race Report: Miami Half-Marathon

Miami Half-Marathon, Miami, FL – 01/29/2012

Miami was a blast! I ate all kinds of delicious veggie and vegan foods, danced a few nights away, paid a ridiculous amount of money for alcohol and parking, saw some erotic art and some monkeys, and ran a half-marathon!

The run itself was unbelievably crowded (over 25,000 people!), which hurt my time a bit. The courseÂ went through South Beach in the early morning of a Sunday, so there were some club-goers just emerging, squinting in the light. It was pretty flat, in the 70s with a breeze, and altogether gorgeous!

I also took a bunch of pictures, so let’s dive in:

: veggie enchiladas at Mi Rinconcito Mexicano

: local CouchSurfing.org members. Good people!

: cigars at Little Havana Cigar Factory

: this counter at Kamazoo reacts to pressure. Neat!

: This cat liked to sleep on the shower mat. Weird.

: I’d reserved an SUV (it was the cheapest), but due to mix-ups ended up with a Town & Country, and fell in love.

: The house in which I surfed.

: An egret I encountered during my 2 mile ‘loosen up’ jog Saturday morning.

: Delicious veggie wrap and pineapple/wheatgrass drink at The Last Carrot.

: My first ever fresh coconut. You drink the juice, then go back and they cut it open so you can eat the meat!

: After retrieving my race packet I walked along Miami Beach, and then saw the BIGGEST CRUISE SHIP EVER heading out to sea.

: carbo loading at Portobello Ristorante

: wine counts as carbo loading in my book

: My lovely CouchSurfing hostess Eileen and her friend Greg.

: My foursquare check-in at the starting line said nothing was going to break my stride. A good sign!

: 13.1 miles later, I win!

: I raced, I went ‘home’, showered, napped, and then ate massive quantities of Thai and sushi at Moon Thai.

: See? Even more food! I ate it all! And sake! Still at Moon Thai.

: I napped some more, and then we hit the World Erotic Art Museum, and then ended up at Mango’s, where I finally had my traditional Pina Colada of victory!