Miami Half-Marathon - Course Long??

It's possible for a certified course to be wrong. I once ran an out and back, certified 5K and the turnaround marker was placed on the wrong side of a bridge, 150 meters further out than it should have been. I ran a PR DESPITE that! Imagine if it was right?

Yeah, it's inexcusable for a certified course to be that far off (though congrats for having the game to throw down a PR anyway). Getting the course and mile-marks right is a pretty simple exercise.

Back to Miami... the placement of some of the mile marks / clocks early in the race was absurd. I've been doing this long enough to have a pretty good idea of even pace, and was running very near the Woman's Marathon winner (Alena ??) who is probably unlikely to be throwing in monster surges early in a marathon. But if I'm to trust the mile markers on the course, my first 6 miles were 6:13, 5:49, 6:31, 5:53, 6:04, and 6:30. Ridiculous, and beneath an event billed as a "major" marathon.

As soon as you used the word "garmin"..... 0/10.... piss poor attempt

Thanks for the stellar feedback. Not a Garmin user myself, but I'll be sure to pass along your opinion.

The course is slightly longer but then again, all certified courses are required to overshoot the distance somewhat. I agree that the mile markers early on were improperly situated. I almost freaked out when at mile 2 the split was 5:16.

I agree that second mile is way off. It had me running faster than I run in a 5k.

I would say the half was long. I ran the full, and a guy I was running with who ran the half ended up finishing over 1:19 and I was 1:18:48 at the halfway split and he had pulled about 3 to 4 seconds ahead of me just before the split off.

Also, the first few miles were off:

6:23, 5:42, 6:37, 5:51, 6:00, 6:24, 5:59, 6:02 - were my first 8 miles before an overall average of 6:01 for the full.

Thanks, seems to confirm my suspicions.

Based on your splits and mine... I'd assume that the siting of mile marks 2, 4, and 5 were all short of where they should have been. That'd account for miles 1 and 5 being somewhat close in length, and the rest of the first 6 miles being wacky.