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Best Boston Marathon Qualifiers
It's here! Our annual list of the year's best marathons to help you qualify for the Boston Marathon.
26.2 miles on a USTAF-certified, flat, single-loop and Boston-qualifying course with exhilarating views alongside the water and a finish at Bayfront Park.
An almost all-flat course that shares approximately 12.9 miles of the half marathon route featuring cityscapes, ocean views, the MacArthur Causeway Bridge and entertainment throughout.
There are a few bridges along the course: • A quarter mile into the race there is the largest bridge of the course, the MacArthur Causeway (9 meters above sea level) — connecting to Watson Island
• At the 2.5-mile mark there is a second, less gradual incline that connects to the island of Miami Beach
• From mile 8 to 11, participants return to mainland Miami by crossing the Venetian Causeway that features a small incline on the last portion of the causeway
The Miami Marathon was the 24th largest marathon in the U.S. last year and was the 24th largest in 2022.
This year 2.4% of finishers qualified for the Boston Marathon and 3.4% of runners qualified for Boston in 2023.
This gives the Miami Marathon the 381st highest percentage of Boston Marathon qualifiers in the U.S. last year and the 82nd highest percentage so far in 2024.
Its Course Score of 99.48 ranks it as the 103rd fastest marathon course in the U.S. and the 11th fastest course in Florida.
The typical race time temperature and humidity levels are above the ideal range for optimal marathon performance. This, coupled with the Course Score, gives the Miami Marathon a PR Score of 97.08. This PR Score ranks it as the 325th fastest marathon in the U.S. and the 15th fastest in Florida.
Learn more about PR Scores and Course Scores on the FAQ page.
Miami Marathon Elevation Chart
Max Elevation: 35 feet (10m) Min Elevation: 1 feet (0m)
The expo is amazing. Huge! Lots of samples and sale shoes.
The course is gorgeous over bridges with ocean breezes and views of huge cruise ships and palm trees.
Race Tips
The course is pancake flat except for a few bridges which are no big deal. There is a lot of shade, but there are also some exposed causeway legs with lots of sun and it got hot. Very hot. and humid.
This is a big race and the half runners stay with the full almost to 13.1 miles, so the course is crowded for the first half.
There is a shuttle from Miami Beach to the start line and back, so you can stay in Miami Beach or downtown Miami and not worry about parking. The race started at 6 but there are multiple corrals so you might not go off until later. This is a big race.
Cool medal, too, though you couldn't carry it on a plane which was a bummer.
Dave's review of 2018 Miami Marathon.
3 /
5 Stars
Review
Positives: The course featured beautiful runs over two of the causeways between South Beach and downtown and a beautiful run through South Beach...overall a scenic course. The expo was amazing...lots of vendors giving away samples, easy bib pick up. Nice race shirt. Beautiful finishers medal, and the organizers have offered to send replacements to runners who received medals that they received from the manufacturer broken. First aid stations were well equipped with salt tablets and other necessities for a hot day. A good selection of treats at the finish line.
Negatives: Gear check wasn't operational one and a half hours before gun time, and given the distance away from the start line gear check was, that simply isn't good enough for a major race. Runners should be able to check their gear up to two hours before gun time. Volunteers, while dedicated, were not adequately trained or informed in too many cases. One of the volunteers who was controling who went into a coral wasn't letting people into the coral from corals ahead of that coral. It was a hot and humid day, so a number of runners were looking to move to slower corals to adapt to a hot/humid pace, so being stopped from doing something the organizers promised you'd be able to do at the expo turned out to be quite the bummer. This extended to aid stations which were a hot mess. Volunteers had not been properly trained on how to hold water cups so runners could easily grab them (rest the cup on a flat hand). Volunteers were also frequently holding the cups without wearing gloves...a real no no in aid station work given that some of them were holding them from the top of the cup with their fingers on the lip (ew!). Instead of gatoraide and water being in predictable places in aide stations (Gatorade first and water second or the other way around), the positioning of gatoraide and water was essentially randomized at all aide stations so you never knew where to go to get what it was that you needed quickly while maintaining your pace through the station, a real pain.
Overall, I was disappointed with the organizational issues I saw in a race that had taken place over many years. While there certainly were positives, I wouldn't recommend this race...too many negatives for me.
Race Tips
South Florida in late January is a crapshoot. Be prepared for hot and humid or possibly gale-force winds.
They don't fully close the streets just a section of it. the cars to drive right next to you. I lost count of how many times I nearly got ran over as I ran this marathon.
4.3 Stars from 10 Reviews
