Marathon is the middle of the Florida Keys, both geographically and in spirit, a town of about nine thousand people spread across a string of islands halfway between Key Largo and Key West. It is less polished than Islamorada and less wild than Key West, a working town of marinas, fishing boats, strip malls and seafood shacks, with the sea never more than a few hundred metres away on either side. The Overseas Highway runs straight through the middle, lined with businesses, and the mile markers, which count down from Key Largo to Key West, put Marathon at around mile 50.
The town owes its name, so the story goes, to the workers who built Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad in the early twentieth century, who said that the work here was a marathon. The railroad, which reached Key West in 1912, was one of the great engineering feats of its time, but it was destroyed in 1935 by the Labor Day hurricane, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States. The road was built on the remains of the railroad's bridges, and today's highway follows much of the same route.
Just west of town, the Seven Mile Bridge, one of the longest bridges in the world when it was built, carries the highway across open water toward the Lower Keys. The old bridge runs alongside it, and part of it has been restored for walkers and cyclists, leading to Pigeon Key, a tiny island that housed the workers who built the railroad, now a museum. In Marathon, the Turtle Hospital rescues and rehabilitates injured sea turtles, and offers tours, and Crane Point, a nature reserve, has trails through tropical hardwood forest.
For riders, the Overseas Highway is one of the great American roads, but it is not a road for speed. It is flat and mostly straight, with speed limits between thirty-five and fifty-five miles per hour, frequent traffic lights and junctions in the towns, and heavy traffic in the winter season. The wind can be strong on the bridges, and the heat and humidity in summer can be brutal. Ride early in the morning or late in the afternoon, when the light on the water is at its best. Marathon is well supplied with fuel, food, motels and supermarkets. Try the local seafood: stone crab claws in season, from mid-October to May, and Key lime pie.