Miami Beach Half Marathon – Cocktails, Strippers & A Jog

The Miami Beach Half Marathon included great food, an amazing Hotel (W Hotel), some entertainment during a romantic dinner and a sweaty jog.  Additionally we went out and saw a Miami Dolphins game.  Miami is one amazing town to visit, has some really good food and is as wild a place as I’ve every been in my life.  As a point of interest, looks like this stop on the Rock n Roll circuit is no longer.

Romantic Italian Dinner …. and Strippers

Amy requested a nice dinner and I suggested Italian.  Our concierge helped us find a little place just up the street from our hotel that had an open table sitting just outside on the street.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  About thirty minutes into our dinner my wife developed a puzzled look on her face and said, “turn around”.  I turned around to see an ice cream truck with two mostly naked strippers on the top.  They were doing …. well … stripper dancing I guess.  I was puzzled then and I am puzzled now that I am writing this.  Sex sells I suppose, even if its ice cream.

Nice Hotel, Great Food

Perhaps the best part of our trip was the terrific food and amazing hotel experience.  We stayed at the W Hotel Miami Beach which was perfectly located in South Beach.  The property is stunning and we drew a great room with a few to kill for.  The food was equally as good and although we had several wonderful dining experiences perhaps our favorite was at Ola Miami Beach.  The most memorable part was the cocktail list which included everything latin, wonderful and “mojito”.  If you like nice stuff, South Beach is the place for you.  Bring plenty of cash.

The Race & Miami Dolphins

The race was ugly.  We stuck to the roads, ran out of south beach, hit the highways and did and out and back.  The later part of the race got fun again once we returned back to the south beach area.  This trip was not about running fortunately, it was about an adventure.  So, we cleaned up and headed out to Sun Life Stadium (later rebranded Hard Rock Stadium), suited up in Orange and enjoyed the game.

My wife is more adventurous (and exciting) than I am.  Upon arriving at the stadium we headed in and of course my wife Amy was already excited about playing a game.  Turns out there was a raffle that for five bucks you could spin a wheel and win a game worn linebacker helmet.  I’ll be damned but she spun that wheel and won the helmet!  Once back to the room, we took turns wearing the helmet, tackling various things in the room and of course throwing some obligatory Heisman poses.  It is worth nothing that I got rid of said helmet a couple years later and Amy is still pretty mad about it.  Sorry dear!

Another adventure in the books!