{"id":136675,"date":"2026-01-29T19:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136675\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:53:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T19:53:13","slug":"donna-marathoners-prepare-for-extreme-cold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/136675\/","title":{"rendered":"DONNA marathoners prepare for extreme cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of marathoners will brave bitter cold Sunday, and drivers could encounter widespread diversions as the 19th Annual DONNA Marathon loops through Jacksonville, Neptune and Atlantic beaches.<\/p>\n

The 26.2-mile marathon route<\/a> will be closed to all traffic and on-street parking as runners make their way along North 1st and 2nd streets, Ocean Boulevard and through multiple neighborhoods, beginning and ending at the Seawalk Pavilion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s theme, Destination: Love<\/a>, celebrates the powerful reminder that no one runs alone,\u201d said a new release for the event. \u201cEvery start line crossed and every finish line reached brings us closer to a world without breast cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalist Donna Deegan, a three-time breast cancer survivor and now mayor of Jacksonville<\/a>, established the DONNA Foundation in 2003. <\/p>\n

The foundation has helped more than 20,000 families, securing more than $6.5 million in financial services and debt relief. The organization also has given more than $3.3 million in support of critical research as the only marathon dedicated to those living with breast cancer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DONNA Marathon events<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s events<\/a> begin at 7 a.m. Friday with a 3-mile Run\/Walk starting at Southern Grounds & Co. on First Street in Neptune Beach.<\/p>\n

Then comes a health and wellness Expo from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Hilton Jacksonville at Mayo Clinic on Transformation Way, plus the Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center\u2019s mobile mammography unit. It offers 3D screening mammograms. To request an appointment, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the Athlete\u2019s Village will open at 6:30 a.m. at the Seawalk Pavilion on 1st Street North in Jacksonville Beach, with parking and shuttle service from the Hilton Jacksonville at Mayo Clinic.<\/p>\n

The DONNA 110 Ultra Marathon<\/a>, a 110-mile journey, will begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Seawalk Pavilion. The 5K will start at 8 a.m., also at the Seawalk Pavilion, then a family fun run will start there at 9:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Then Sunday will bring the Donna National Marathon To Finish Breast Cancer, the half marathon, the Visit Jacksonville Donna Booby Trap Challenge and Pete\u2019s Bar Donna Crawl start.<\/p>\n

The official race will begin at 7:30 a.m., with the Pete\u2019s Bar crawl at 7:45 a.m., starting alongside the marathoners before veering off to complete a 2-mile course, ending at Pete\u2019s Bar.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

That means access to all three beach communities may be inhibited on race day. The Jacksonville Beach Police Department posted a Facebook reminder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe race will begin at 7:30 a.m. and is expected to conclude by 3:30 p.m.,\u201d the post states. \u201cThis is a reminder there will be street closings and traffic delays throughout the race route.\u00a0No vehicles will be permitted to park on impacted city streets beginning Saturday after 6 p.m. through Sunday, until streets are opened for access.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parking ban includes all Beaches community streets affected by the race, with vehicles parked on the race course towed, race officials warn.<\/p>\n

Full spectator information is here<\/a>. Free parking for all weekend events is available in Mayo Clinic Lot E-8. Spillover parking in Lot E-6 will be available Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"\"The official map showing the route of Sunday\u2019s 26.2 Donna marathon. | Donna marathon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of marathoners will brave bitter cold Sunday, and drivers could encounter widespread diversions as the 19th Annual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-136675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}