'New energy': Donna Marathon expects growth for Jacksonville Beach running tradition

The balloons. The streamers. The yards of pink, pink, pink.

They're back. For those new to the Donna Marathon — based on the early numbers, there are quite a few this year — runners by the thousands will get a chance to see the coastal communities of the First Coast in full pink mode.

"The people just go all out to support the runners in the neighborhoods," Donna Marathon executive director Amanda Napolitano said.

The annual race to finish breast cancer returns to Northeast Florida's running calendar, when thousands of runners hit the road for the 17th edition of the Donna Marathon through Jacksonville Beach, Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach. The start time is 7:30 a.m. Sunday.

The main event starts and finishes at the SeaWalk Pavilion in Jacksonville Beach for both the 13.1-mile half marathon participants and the 26.2-mile marathon runners, who complete a double loop of the course.

While race founder Donna Deegan enters this marathon in an additional role after Jacksonville voters elected her mayor in May 2023, the foundation's mission to raise funds for breast cancer research and support carries on.

"Outside of putting the word mayor before her name," Napolitano said, "nothing has changed for us."

During the past year, Napolitano said, the Donna Foundation has now surpassed 20,000 families assisted through the organization's cancer support programs.

Deegan greeted runners Friday inside the Jaguars' flex field on the first morning of the marathon's expo.

"It's a good kind of busy," she said.

DONNA MARATHON BOUNCES BACK FROM COVID-19

Those aren't the only numbers on the rise. Napolitano said early registrations for the marathon and half marathon, as of the start of the week, were on their fastest pace since before COVID-19.

"We've seen tremendous growth… it really does signal a return to pre-pandemic numbers again," she said.

COVID-19 was already on the radar in the 2020 race, held weeks after researchers first recorded the novel coronavirus in the United States. With the pandemic active the next year, organizers moved the 2021 race to a virtual schedule. Officially, 85 marathon and 437 half-marathon finishers were recorded in the virtual run.

Napolitano said that as pandemic fears waned in 2022 and 2023, organizers initially expected the Donna Marathon's participation numbers to rebound quickly. It didn't turn out that way at first. In hindsight, Napolitano said, the delay makes some sense.

"If you're new to the sport and you just got started running around the neighborhood, it might be some time before you're ready to make that step and enter a race," Napolitano said.

Although last year's race did record an increase in finishers from the 2022 event, the half marathon and marathon combined for 1,222 fewer finishers than in 2019.

It's a different story this year. By Thursday, the field for Saturday's Donna 5K was officially sold out. Napolitano said that the marathon and half-marathon field were also nearing their capacity.

Several other supplemental events are also joining this year's schedule. Those include a pasta dinner Saturday, a post-race party for runners later Sunday at Sandbar Jax Beach, and the return of the Mayo Clinic's educational breast cancer presentations held this year at EverBank Stadium.

DODGING THE OBSTACLES

Despite all the turbulence of the COVID-19 years, the Donna Marathon fared relatively well compared to many other events.

For dozens of races around the country, the pandemic dealt a knockout blow. While effects varied by location and size, the 2022 RaceTrends report from RunSignup found that participation in distance races decreased 10% from 2019 to 2022. Of recorded distance events held in 2019, 20% did not return to the calendar in 2022.

Within the past week, the Donna Marathon averted potentially significant disruptions from outside causes.

The city of Jacksonville Beach, site of the start and finish for the marathon and half marathon, declared a temporary shutdown Monday because of a "cybersecurity event" that prompted officials to close City Hall, parks and a golf course. Most of those operations returned Tuesday.

The marathon also escaped Sunday night's blaze at the Rise Doro building, located only two blocks north of the Gator Bowl Boulevard section of the course for Saturday's Donna 5K. Although several roads remain closed in the area, designated by city officials as the "collapse zone," Napolitano confirmed to the Times-Union that the fire will not alter plans for running or parking at Saturday's run.

Still out of the foundation's control, though, is the weather. As of Friday, the National Weather Service's forecast for Jacksonville Beach called for likely rain with gusts up to 30 miles per hour.

Whatever the skies, Napolitano said she feels encouraged to see marathon interest beginning to turn the corner after years of uncertainty.

"It could be that we're just now, finally, seeing some of that new energy," she said.

DONNA MARATHON FINISHERS

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Donna Marathon 2024: Runners increase for race to finish breast cancer