Sometimes you have to wonder if marathon runners are masochists. They endure long, strenuous exertions, flirt with dehydration, and pound city pavements until their joints give out. What's the big thrill of running 26.2 miles? Pain? An obsessive need to be like P. Diddy or Oprah? The promise of sex? The Toyota Prius Miami Tropical Marathon and Half Marathon offers this incentive: money. $60,000 worth. Now don't go jumping into your sneakers and sports bra just yet. Hundreds of world-class distance runners from all over the world have been training for years to snag the prize from your pudgy paws. Still if you want to stand on the sidelines and cheer a torture artist on, it might inspire you to start training. The runners will be racing from downtown Miami to South Beach, crossing the Venetian Causeway, and then heading along Miami Avenue to Coconut Grove. From there they turn around and run toward Brickell Avenue to finish, ultimately at Bayfront Park. If you need a few training pointers, check out the sports and fitness expo before and after the starting gun goes off. The race starts at 6:00 a.m. at the American Airlines Arena. Admission is free. Call 305-278-8668. -- By Juan Carlos Rodriguez
Super Bore
Football, beer, corporate greed
SUN 2/1
We wonder how many people older than 12 actually watch the Super Bowl. Sure, the networks will come out with a fat number of viewers, but who really pays attention? By the fourth quarter, one of the teams will be creaming the other and your drunken stupor will bring you to the following realization: Super Bowl sucks. But girlfriends and boyfriends who are running the house party could get the better end of the deal. If they're smart, they'll be doing some scoring of their own when their little wiener and chip party is done. Super Bowl XXXVIII starts at 6:00 p.m., broadcast from CBS to your television screen. -- By Juan Carlos Rodriguez
