JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Step by step, mile by mile, the Gate River Run brought thousands to run the streets in downtown Jacksonville.
“It was a really fun experience,” Rachel Walny said. “That hill at the 7-mile mark was something I’ve never experienced, that was crazy.”
Traveling from Michigan, the cold and windy weather was hardly an issue for USA Track and Field member Rachel Walny.
“It was more of just getting out there and competing,” she said. “I raced a couple of weeks ago but before that, it had been like 16 months with the pandemic since I raced last.”
As one of the first major events since the pandemic began, and this being the largest 15k race in the nation, the Duval Street starting point introduced socially distanced wave times among many safety protocols keeping athletes safe.
“I knew either way how it was going to be held I was going to be wearing my mask the whole time,” one runner told Action News Jax. “I wanted to be socially distant as much as possible. I purposely registered to be further in the back to be away from big crowds so it was more of a reassurance to come out.”
The runners tell Action News Jax that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. For the 8,000 participants in the Gate River Run, the experience was as rewarding as ever.
“Just the crowd size for sure is very different. They restricted the number of runners to be safe,” a runner told Action News Jax. “My first year was probably a lot of nerves, and now I feel really comfortable with the community.”
JTC Running has been hosting the Gate River Run since 1978.
In that time, the nonprofit has donated over $50,000 annually to local charities, high school summer camp scholarships and various running trail projects.
Action News Jax’s very own John Bachman took on the 15k race and finished in 90:55!
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