It's Miami Marathon weekend — if you plan to drive anywhere in the cities of Miami or Miami Beach this weekend, read this first.
The weekend-long event will begin with the Tropical 5K at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Miami Children's Museum. Runners will head east on the MacArthur Causeway toward Miami Beach, turn right onto Alton Road, hang a left onto South Pointe Drive, and finish at Nikki Beach.
Then comes the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon Sunday morning. Hordes of runners will arrive at the starting line before dawn, and several roads will be shut down for hours to accommodate the races. Organizers expect more than 21,000 participants.
Please note that the #MiamiMarathon will be taking place this Sunday (02/09). Areas in the City of Miami will be affected between the hours of 5AM-2PM. Please see map below for more details. pic.twitter.com/KuG4SnxxTX
— City of Miami (@CityofMiami) February 6, 2020
The Sunday races begin at 6 a.m. at the American Airlines Arena and end at Bayfront Park. The marathon course runs east on the MacArthur Causeway into Miami Beach and north up Ocean Drive, then west to return to the mainland via the Venetian Causeway and south into Coconut Grove.
- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Miami and help keep the future of New Times free.
So if you don't want to be stuck in traffic waiting for tens of thousands of runners to cross the road, avoid these areas during these hours:
- Downtown/Brickell, 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- MacArthur Causeway, 5 a.m. to 8 a.m.
- Miami Beach, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Venetian Causeway, 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.
- Rickenbacker Causeway, 6:30 a.m. to noon
- Coconut Grove, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Marathon organizers say most runners will be off the course by 2 p.m., but roads will reopen on a rolling basis. Drivers should use the Julia Tuttle Causeway to drive to and from Miami Beach. The Port of Miami will be open and can be accessed from NE Fifth Street. Here's a full list of road closures.
Miami Marathon lore has it that a Miami Heat/Chicago Bulls game coincided with the race in 2012. Rather than decompose in traffic, LeBron James opted for a 40-minute bike ride to the American Airlines Arena. The Heat won that day. And surely that's symbolic of something.
Keep Miami New Times Free... Since we started Miami New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Miami, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Miami with no paywalls.
