Francisco Urbano hails from Malaga Spain, but travels the world to compete in running events. One week, it's Berlin, Germany. The next its South Beach. He's a man who is quite serious about his runs. He doesn't have a job. It's all that he does.
But it was a hometown familiarity with the humidity of South Florida that allowed 26-year-old Ethan Clary of Cutler Bay to stay ahead of Urbano Sunday morning and win the Eighth Annual Michelob Ultra Miami Beach 13.1 Marathon.
Clary ran away from the pack early in the race and never looked back as the heat index rose to finish in 1:10:30, three minutes and 12 seconds faster than the 29-year-old Urbano, who was perplexed by the defeat.
Miami Beach's Emilie Ney used her long-stride to will herself to the finish line five seconds in front of Guadalupe Merlos of Miami and Adriana Piekarewicz, who finished in a virtual dead heat behind her. Ney's winning time in the thrilling three-woman race at the front of the pack was 1:27:18.
"I do 15 miles every Sunday, so I thought I could get 13 out of the way and it's always fun to get a race out of it," Clary said. "It was windy today, but I led the whole way. I wasn't expecting the hills to be as much of a challenge as they were."
The race attracted 3,300 runners and is the first of seven in a 13.1 series that extends from March through November across the country. It is also the fourth leg of the five-race Florida Storm Series, which challenges runners to participate in three of the five events. The Series culminates with next weekend's First Watch Sarasota Half Marathon and Relay.
Sunday's race began on Ocean Drive at 13th Street in front of the Carlyle Hotel and included a western trek across the Julia Tuttle Causeway into Miami. The scenic return to Miami Beach came via the MacArthur Causeway and past multiple docked cruise ships with the race culminating with a food and beer finish-line celebration at Lummus Park at Ocean Drive and 8th Street.
The "hills" Clary referred to were the bridges on the two causeways which provided great views but wreaked havoc on runner's legs. It was only the fifth Half-Marathon Clary had ever run and his second victory. He competed for the University of Albany while in college and moved to Miami three years ago because his fiance is in graduate school at Florida International University.
But Clary had such a wide margin from the rest of the field that any struggles along the way were kind of irrelevant.
"I run three Half Marathons a month and have been running professionally for three years," Urbano said while discussing his futile attempt to chase Clary. "I won my last race last weekend in Spain.
"But I ran a pretty bad race today. It was very tough. I'm used to running around 10 a.m., so I was still in rest mode at 6:15 when we started. The humidity was tough. It was a very tough race."
Ney, a 33-year-old from Bay Harbor Islands, is a Psychology professor at Barry University. She has typically done triathlons for the past 13 years since she quit running during her college career at the University of Richmond. This was only her third half marathon. She also finished seventh at the recent Miami Marathon and Half Marathon.
"These girls pushed me like crazy," she said of Merlos, who also lives in Miami, and Piekarewicz, who lives in Tallahassee. "They kept me moving. I'm excited. We started out together from mile one and were step-in-step until Mile 12. Then we started to split up a little. I felt them right behind me the whole way though.
"We said three words to each other the whole race, but we felt (the camaraderie)."
"We were friends in misery," Piekarewicz said.
Yannick Rinne, a 27-year-old from Muenster, Germany won the 5K race that is run simultaneous to the 13.1 Marathon in 16:37. Fabiola Morales of Miami Beach was the women's winner in 20:22.
Results
Men
| 1 | Ethan Clary | Miami | 1:10:30 |
| 2 | Francisco Urbano | Nerja, Spain | 1:13:42 |
| 3 | Lazaro Renato Aguilar | Miami | 1:14:24 |
| 4 | Scott Byers | Miami | 1:17:47 |
| 5 | Timothy Reimink | Miami | 1:18:25 |
| 6 | Jordan Varano | Vestal, Ny | 1:21:44 |
| 7 | Chris Farley | Arlington, Va | 1:23:12 |
| 8 | Dino Lacapra | Miami | 1:23:34 |
| 9 | Wilson Shearin | Miami | 1:23:39 |
| 10 | Victor Lagares | Santo Domingo,DR | 1:24:13 |
Women
| 1 | EMILIE NEY | Miami Beach | 1:27:18 |
| 2 | GUADALUPE MERLOS | Miami | 1:27:23 |
| 3 | ADRIANA PIEKAREWICZ | Tallahassee | 1:27:23 |
| 4 | JENNIFER NICHOLSON | P. Beach Gardens | 1:30:17 |
| 5 | DESIREE BARGER | Miami | 1:30:43 |
| 6 | RACHELLE GINSBERG | Miami | 1:31:39 |
| 7 | BETHANY ANNE | Allston, MA | 1:33:07 |
| 8 | STEPHANIE IRIZARRY | Hialeah | 1:33:14 |
| 9 | TARA SORAGHAN | Lancaster, NH | 1:33:43 |
| 10 | MAURA SHORT | P. Beach Gardens | 1:36:23 |
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