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Most runners wear costumes -- for 13.1 miles -- during Saturday's Halloween Half-Marathon. (Exclusive Sports Marketing/Courtesy / October 25, 2012) |
Superman chases a skeleton, who chases the Joker, though they slow down at water stops. They run for 13.1 miles, whereupon they drape their arms around each other and go drink a beer.
You see more than tight running shorts at the Halloween Half-Marathon. The fourth annual event will kick off 7 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at Jungle Island in Miami.
Although South Florida's running scene in general and half-marathon offerings in particular have mushroomed, there's nothing quite like the Halloween Half-Marathon, which feels like a cult race. A younger-than-usual crowd ignores chasing personal records for one day and instead spends a morning in true South Florida Halloween spirit — albeit in running shoes.
Participants can enter one of six divisions: superhero, villain, funny, scary, WTF and underwear. Past costumes included men in tutus; six runners wearing prison stripes who stayed connected all 13.1 miles as a chain gang; and a guy in a diaper, who probably finished very, very chafed.
Then, there's the makeup. It doesn't go well with sweat.
"Some costumes certainly look good at the start, but they end up in tatters at the finish," says race director Matt Lorraine, of Exclusive Sports Marketing. (Full disclosure: I waddled through last year's run in 2 hours, 30 minutes with a lame gimmick: I took off my shirt and wrote "FORGOT COSTUME" in marker on my back. I didn't want to be left out.)
Exclusive Sports Marketing created the run in 2009 as an alternative to South Florida's busy half-marathon scene. Lorraine estimates that the racing menu has grown from three to 12 in recent years, most crammed in the cooler fall and winter months.
"These days, to do a race you have to have a different flair to it," he says, noting that adventure races such as the Muddy Buddy and the Warrior Dash also have crowded the market. "We think our race has a little bit of a buzz.
"You can count the people trying for a personal record on one hand," Lorraine says.
A post-race party is set for Monty's Raw Bar at Miami Beach Marina, 300 Alton Road, from 9 to 11 a.m., with free beer. And, yep, it tastes good after a run like this one.
The field is capped at 1,500, Lorraine says, though he doesn't expect to reach that number this year.
But someday he may, which could bring a rush on costumes for the Invisible Man.
More info at HalloweenHalfMarathon.com.
