More from the Miami Marathon: 2023 race news, medical transport update, T-shirt situation
Another year, another Miami Marathon.
Life Time Miami Marathon and Half Marathon co-founder and chief running officer Frankie Ruiz woke up early Monday, partook in his usual ride through the 26.2-mile course to ensure it was debris-free “or even cleaner’’ than it was when air horns signaled the start Sunday, then took a few seconds to ponder.
“The word ‘relieved’ always comes to mind,’’ Ruiz said. “You check your initial social media accounts, you check your email inbox, you make your phone calls to your special events directors from the different cities, you check in with the police officers and medical people. Then, when you’re done, you say ‘Either I’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do and a lot of issues to address,’ or you feel relief. Right now, I feel relieved.
“For now, 24 hours later, I’m happy.’’
The 2023 Life Time Miami Marathon and Half Marathon is set for Jan. 29. Ruiz said that during last weekend’s Marathon Expo at the Miami Beach Convention Center, runners who were entered in Sunday’s event were allowed to register for 2023. He said organizers haven’t opened online registration. This year’s race was reduced to a combined field of 15,000, and about 6,000 on a waiting list never got the chance to participate. Those people will have priority over others who have never participated, and will eventually be sent invitations.
Ruiz said next year’s edition might increase its participation limit by a couple thousand, but it also could stay at 15,000, depending on review of detailed drone videos of how race traffic flowed onto the MacArthur Causeway after the start.
More marathon news
▪ Given the nature of the event, several participants are transported yearly to local hospitals (depending on where they are during the race) with everything from cuts and broken bones after falling to heart attacks and heat exhaustion. This year, Ruiz said 20 participants were transported, but none of their issues were life threatening.
“They were mostly for muscle cramping and dehydration and heat exhaustion,’’ Ruiz said. “No broken bones, no one unconsious or not breathing. The warmer weather is to blame, and possibly race-experience training. In South Florida, people had been out of long-distance races in some cases 700-plus days since the pandemic hit.”
Temperatures hovered in the low to mid-70s Sunday with humidity exceeding 90 percent.
Ruiz said medical coordinators had touched base with at least 17 of the 20 transported and “their issues have been resolved and they’re fine.’’ They were still working to reach the other three, he said, “but none had life-threatening issues.’’
▪ New York City Marathon race director Ted Metellus, 48, who last year became the first black race director of any major marathon in the world, competed in Sunday’s half marathon, finishing in 3:05:41.
Just before the start of the race, Metellus gave Ruiz a gold coin that commemorated last November’s 50th running of the New York City Marathon. “It’s special,’’ said Ruiz, who said he kept the coin in his pocket during the marathon, rubbing it every now and then. “Ted used to be one of our Miami race directors for a couple years.’’
Ruiz said many of the same people who help with race weekend in Miami also work the NYC event.
Supply-chain issues hit Marathon
While 16,000-plus white Miami Marathon T-shirts covered the torsos of runners in Miami on Sunday, 16,000 more gray ones were sitting on a container ship off the coast of New Jersey.
At least, that’s “what we heard last,” said Frankie Ruiz, the co-founder of the Marathon.
Even the Miami Marathon was not immune from the global supply-chain issues as the 16,000-plus T-shirts organizers ordered for their runners did not make it to Florida on time.
Ruiz said he expects the shirts to arrive later in the week and the Marathon is trying to figure out what to do with them, with donation a strong possibility. In the meantime, organizers had to spring into action last week to make sure their runners were outfitted.
“We didn’t even want to let the runners know,” Ruiz said.
Ruiz and Co. worked with Levy Advertising in Doral to get 16,000 shirts printed, with Ruiz and other organizers making constant trips out to the facility throughout the week to get the shirts ready for Sunday. Ruiz was still picking up shirts as recently as Friday, he said.
While it worked out for the runners, the delay was still a blow for the Marathon.
“Our margins are thinner every day,” Ruiz said.
