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Floridaboiler
POTFH
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Joined: 18 May 2002
Posts: 11322
Location: Jacksonville, Florida
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 Posted: 12/17/02 - 19:51 Post subject:
| jrjo wrote: | | Eric, Good going! Nice race. Looks like you'll have a negative split on the halves and solid pace all the way, no fade, tremendous!!! Give us some details on the Jax course, support, and how'd you rate it. |
JRJO,
THe race was great. Hard to be unbiased since it is my first marathon. 1st Place Sports runs a lot of the local races and they always do a great job. The course is very flat, for the most part shaded. It follows a curvy tree lined road with some big buck homes some of which are right on the St. Johns river. The course is more or less an out and back. On the way back the first mile or 2 is slightly different so you don't see the leaders (I liked that so I don't get depressed at how far ahead they are). They had every mile well marked and water/power-ade every 2 miles. I don't remember how many clocks they had at the mile markers. There were a few though, mostly at the beginning and end. They even give you a halfway split in the final results on the web, thank goodness for chip timing. There were even pockets of spectators cheering you on and in some instances just families standing in their driveway watching. It was cool to see.
As you come in for the home stretch on a track at a high school they call out every finishers name. They even have post race massages if you have 5 bucks on you. I do plan on trying to do this one every year now. The police did a great job of controlling traffic and all the water stops were pretty well staffed. It was nice to get the gu at miles 16 and 19. If you ever happen to be in Jacksonville in December I strongly recommend it, if you are in shape for a marathon. Otherwise anytime you are down here and find out the race is being run by 1st place sports definitely plan on seeing a well organized race.
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