Pink meets teal: Donna Marathon grows Jaguars footprint for 2023 run against breast cancer

The registration numbers are on their way up.

The special guests are on their way back.

And to celebrate year 16 for the Donna Marathon — and year 20 in the mission of the Donna Foundation to fight breast cancer — this year's race is getting a dose of teal to go with the annual pink.

The annual race expo, for the first time, enters the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars at the flex field inside Daily's Place for two days beginning Friday morning.

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Also moving downtown is the Donna 5K, which begins and ends right on the 50-yard line at the center of TIAA Bank Field, only three weeks after Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence led a memorable playoff comeback there on national television.

"We're going to see a lot of the presence of Donna Marathon weekend," race founder Donna Deegan said, "both downtown and at the beach."

The relationship between the NFL team and the annual race to finish breast cancer is far from new, dating back to the Donna Marathon's earliest editions. But this year's connection turns up the links another notch.

Arriving on the heels of a historic turnaround season for the Jaguars, one that saw the team rally from the worst record in the NFL last year to an AFC South championship and a trip to the divisional playoff round, the race is hoping to pick up a further boost from the buzz around all things Jags on the First Coast.

Runners at the expo will stop by Daily's Place to complete their packet pickup, whether they're racing in events Saturday, Sunday or both.

"I don't know of any race expo that's ever been in the practice facility of an NFL team," race director Amanda Napolitano said, "but we're going to make it happen."

On Saturday's 5K, from the start at the football midfield line, runners will dash southward out of the stadium and toward the St. Johns River, following Bay Street nearly to the Main Street Bridge. They will then reverse course, round the west side of the stadium and reenter TIAA Bank Field from the north and finish on the 50.

Runners will be able to see themselves on the stadium's 362-foot-wide scoreboard as they complete the football-flavored race.

"Everyone loves seeing themselves on that Jumbotron," Deegan said.

The race weekend is also picking up momentum after the disruptions of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 bumped the 2021 events to a virtual-only platform, and although 2022 resumed a largely-normal race week routine, participation numbers were just beginning to recover.

This time, for the first time since pre-pandemic days, race director Napolitano said the marathon weekend is starting to attract the traditional crowds of runners from across the nation. That includes the usual assembly of special guests, a group ranging from Olympic champion Joan Benoit Samuelson to veteran running instructor Jeff Galloway to breast cancer researcher Edith Perez.

The numbers at the finish line are just part of the story. Over more than 15 years, the race has contributed to raising more than $3 million for breast cancer research and nearly $5 million in financial support for families in their fight against cancer.

"I'm just so grateful that we've been able to bring people together from all over the world to help so many people here," Deegan said.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 2023 Donna Marathon includes 5K at Jaguars' TIAA Bank Field