Palm trees, white sand beaches and a run over a pair of bridges that span the causeway between the Florida mainland and the islands of Virginia Key and Key Biscayne are just a few of the scenes that await runners at the Key Biscayne Half Marathon.
Runners will start the out-and-back course for the race on Key Biscayne at Miami Marine Stadium, the first stadium built for powerboat racing in the United States, which was also featured in the Elvis Presley film Clambake.
The home of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park at its southern end and Crandon Park at its northern end, Key Biscayne is also home to a densely packed residential community in the middle of the island, with plentiful retail shops, restaurants, high-end resort hotels and marinas.
However, there’s also plenty of the not-so-distant past here on these islands, including remnants of the old Crandon Park Zoo, which opened back in 1948 and closed in the early 1980s.
A number of its cages and exhibit buildings that once housed tigers, rhinos, elephants and more still stand today, including the tracks of the monorail train that once ferried visitors around the park decades ago.
