The Decline in North-Central Florida of Marathons and Half-Marathons

It dismays me that, at least in north-central Florida where I live (the Gainesville-Ocala area), a thriving distance-running race scene that enjoyed large public support has dwindled into much-smaller-scale events held completely within parks and on converted bike trails.  When I rediscovered distance running around 2007, Gainesville had just begun its annual LifeSouth Five Points of Life marathon and half-marathon, held each February.  The course wound up and down city streets, and included downtown Gainesville and the University of Florida campus, at one point passing through their football stadium.  At the same time, Ocala had in January its own marathon/half marathon race.  Its course went south of town (start and finish near the Paddock Mall) through hilly horse country, where large estates and fields featured many thoroughbred racing horses.  I ran Gainesville's Five Points races...all half-marathon distance...six times with 2022 being their final year.  As for Ocala I finished its marathon in 2011 and half-marathon in 2013...I'm not sure when they stopped holding their races.  During this time I also drove to more distant locales for their own half-marathons (DeLeon Springs, Palm Coast and Tavares).  None of these are held anymore, either.  The only distance races in my area are organized by either the Florida Track Club, US Road Running, or Lloyd Clarke Sports, and they...as I mentioned before...tend to confine themselves to out-of-the-way places.  I like the buzz of big-city distance races, and I like to jog in my living room watching You-Tube virtual runs of some of these races (NYC Marathon is easily my favorite).  I have yet to run a race outside the state of Florida, but I'm retired now so it shouldn't be too hard to hop on a plane and make a weekend go at it visiting my targeted city.  But it doesn't look as if, at least where I live, public marathons and half-marathons are going to make a comeback anytime soon.  I've tried to get myself into an annual tradition as different organizations like Haven Hospice, Taccachale, the Sarantos and Meridian would start an annual race, only to cancel its continuation two or three years down the line.  That, of course, is their privilege and choice...too bad, though, because I would have liked to continue participating in those runs. Last November I finished my second-ever marathon race with a group that has since ceased holding their events twice a year on the eastern Hawthorne Trail.  They're gone now, but at least I got my marathon in!  Now the only marathon left in north-central Florida is a January event run by the Florida Track Club, but they are elitist about runners who take more than five hours to complete it.  That doesn't work for me, seeing that at age 68 I completed last November's marathon in 5 hours 7 minutes...

Watched Today's Kentucky Derby, Hype and All

Earlier today I watched...as has generally been my pattern...the drawn-out, hyped coverage of this year's version of the Kentucky Derby, the first of the Triple Crown of American three-year-old thoroughbred horse racing.  Taking place at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, it is full of tradition with all the flowers, ornate clothes and hats...and of course all that Kentucky booze.  Before the race, Journalism was the listed betting favorite, and different analysts and celebrities weighed in on which horse they picked to win the race, composed of twenty horse/jockey combos crammed onto a slick, muddy track on this rainy day.  As for me, a few days ago I picked Sovereignty out of the lineup because I liked the name and the horse wasn't an extreme long shot.  I also looked to see what trainer Bob Baffert had entered in the race...I'm something of a fan of his and was dismayed at his suspension for the past few years for a violation in an earlier race.  The only horse of his was Citizen Bull, so I kept an eye on that one.  The race itself went well, although everyone in it was thoroughly muddied at the end.  As it turned out, Baffert's entry, drawing the undesired pole position, started out strong in the lead but faded to finished 15th.  And Journalism and Sovereignty, training pals from their horse farm in nearby (to me) Ocala, fought it out for the win at the very end, with "my" horse pulling away.  It was a satisfying race to watch and, you know, I didn't need to wager a single dime on it in order to enjoy it all.  Now on to the second jewel in the Triple Crown, Baltimore's Preakness at Pimlico, in a couple of weeks.  Usually the Kentucky Derby winner runs in the Preakness, but that isn't always the case as the trainer has to ascertain the horse's condition... 

NYC Marathon Open to Slow Finishers, Unlike Gainesville-Area Marathons

The New York City Marathon took place the Sunday before last, and I enjoyed watching ongoing television coverage.  Although there was a channel devoted to showing the top elite competition at the front, there were also several YouTube live feeds at different parts of the running course, depicting what was going on from the sidelines.  The most compelling of these, which I watched in the early evening toward the event's end, showed 59th Street in Midtown Manhattan on the southern rim of Central Park, just one mile from the 26.2-mile race's finish line.  There, exhausted and sometimes limping entrants mostly walked past the exhorting, shouting dude behind the camera as their impending finishing times crept higher and higher toward the seven-hour mark.  This scenario...at least the part allowing the race's stragglers to finish without closing the course because of an imposed time deadline...made the NYC Marathon an open race.  We used to have a couple of those in the marathon distance here in north central Florida, but sadly, no more.  Let me explain...

My only "official" marathon...although I had run a practice one the week before in four hours and twenty-three minutes...was the Ocala Marathon of January 23, 2011.  Regrettably, I sustained an IT band injury which hobbled me in the second half of the race, forcing me to walk slowly for its final seven miles. My time?  Six hours and four minutes.  I had also intended back then to run the next month's scheduled Gainesville Five Points of Life Marathon, but my need to recover cancelled that and I then resolved to stick to half-marathons as my longest racing distance.  But lately I've been thinking it would be nice to have another go, if only for just one time, at a marathon-distance event.  But both the Ocala and Five Points of Life marathons are no more, and the only other races of this distance in my area have very restrictive time limits.  The biggest of these, the Florida Track Club's Mary Andrews Marathon next January, sets just five hours as its limit...even with good training and without any injuries, at my age (67) I would be hard-pressed to get a sub-five hour finishing time. So, although I sympathize with the race organizers who don't want to hang around waiting for someone to finally get to the finish line after seven or eight hours, I do think that since they are charging a hefty fee to enter the race in the first place then they should be more flexible with the allotted time and at least extend the limit to a more reasonable six hours.  That is, if they're really interested in popularizing and growing the sport and not just stuck-up elitists.  I think all public races, even the two extinct ones I extolled, have limits on finishing times. But since they're public, they should take that public in mind and avoid oppressively short limits on finishing times.  Sadly, at least in my area, the opposite is happening...

Ran Today's Depot Parkrun 5K...and a Little Beyond

For a while I had been considering driving all the way down to Ocala, about 37-38 miles away from my home, and trying one of the bi-monthly racing events being staged in Baseline Trailhead Park, on the eastern side of town off 58th Avenue.  But instead of shelling out the fee for their race this morning...I'll probably do it some day in the future anyway...I once again ran my hometown's free, volunteer-run regular event, the Depot Parkrun 5K (3.1 miles)...and for the 24th time since 2019.  The weather was pleasant at the 7:30 race time, in the mid-sixties and a little over 90% humidity.  I felt energetic and my running reflected it as I got myself into a brisk pacing groove early on and finished strong with one of my better times for this event at 30:19. You can see the results by clicking HERE.  After last week's 10K race on the Hawthorne Trail held by the Florida Track Club, I waited a few minutes after finishing it and then ran an additional 1.5 miles on a part of the Trail I hadn't covered before.  So why not do the same here?  I waited about ten minutes after finishing my 5K and then set out to get back on the Hawthorne Trail...it's connected to Depot Park. I went south on it until I reached Williston Road and then turned back, covering an extra 1.9 miles. That stretch of the Hawthorne Trail has some of the prettiest scenery I've experienced along it so far, with a bridge going over a creek that looked like something from northern Georgia. I like this "going the extra distance" strategy following races and plan to implement it in future events, although I think I might take a pass whenever a half-marathon rolls by...

Rural vs. City Long Distance Races

I was training in my living room, running to a YouTube complete video of the Mississauga Half-Marathon, from a runner's perspective.  The individual involved also recorded the Toronto and Oakville half-marathons this way...Mississauga and Oakville are nearby communities to Toronto (in Ontario, Canada in case you didn't know).   I was taken by the rural emphasis for the running courses in Oakville and Mississauga while Toronto had the runners go straight down the main drag into the city's urban center.  I guess if you live around there, you appreciate the diversity of the courses...the scenery in the more rural half-marathons was pretty and interesting.  But to me at least, running in the heart of a city is something that one doesn't experience every day, and I enjoyed looking at all the different kinds of businesses...especially restaurants and coffee places...that Toronto offers.  Let me go one step further: if I were out of town, even far away, I would definitely pick Toronto's race over those of the other two sites to hop on a plane to fly to.  Yet I'm guessing it probably costs more to run in it...and the organizers' expenses must be considerably higher.  That's why I don't hold it against our local blood bank charity here in Gainesville, LifeSouth, for ending their 2006-22 run of holding such an event here in my hometown.  Ten years ago, I could run their half-marathon, which went right through the heart of the city (and through the University of Florida, even its football stadium) and then opt for the more rural setting of the Ocala Half-Marathon, set along roads south of town where there are many horse farms.  Now, though, there are neither any Ocala nor LifeSouth events (if you discount the latter's much toned-down 5K race) and if you want to run a marathon or half-marathon anymore around here, you have to go to the Hawthorne Trail, which I like but is far away from anything other than a lot of boring trees...that wouldn't do for a YouTube video, especially since the last half-marathon I ran there repeated the same pathway four times...with the marathon event demanding runners go down the same monotonous stretch back and forth eight times.  C'mon, we can do better than that without necessarily having to pass by Tim Tebow's statue...

Running Races Being Pushed Off the Streets and Onto Remote Trails

I'm noticing a trend in public running races here in northern central Florida...and judging by the race calendar elsewhere in the state, it isn't just happening here.  It used to be that we'd have races in a more urban setting, races that were more or less looped courses that afforded the participants a variety of the experiences and sights belonging to the city in question...that to me was always one of the big appeals of racing.  We had the annual Five Points marathon/half-marathon that ran right through the heart of Gainesville in such a looping course, even passing through the University of Florida's football stadium at one point.  Ocala also had its annual racing event, another loop (at least for the half-marathon event) although its course covered the more rural horse farms south of the city.  Both of these events are gone now, leaving runners who want to experience marathons or half-marathons races in this area to do so on the Hawthorne Trail, either from Boulware Springs Park in southeastern Gainesville or from the Eastern Trailhead in the town of Hawthorne.  Ocala is holding no marathons or half-marathons anymore, not even on some remote rails-to-trails course.  Gainesville still holds these two distances in races, but they're now confined to that one trail way off in the boondocks far from civilization...a nice surface but pretty much boring scenery: just trees and more trees.  Plus, the races are all there-and-back, and two of the three offered additionally required repeated laps...ouch!  It's as if society has said that we runners aren't welcome among them anymore and we need to go hide somewhere off in the woods to do our "thing" from now on.  Nowadays if I want to remain in north central Florida and experience marathons or half-marathons, I'm left to either retreating to the Hawthorne Trail or to watching videos others have made of marathons elsewhere...which is what I've been doing lately.  Interesting races, like the Toronto Half-Marathon, New York City Marathon, Walt Disney World Marathon and the Boston Marathon, all provide a visual backdrop of the always changing surroundings, with the sense of a Tolkienesque quest as the runners plod onward to the finish line...and I'm right there (in my living room) with them.  None of those courses are looped either, meaning that real-life participants in those places have to figure out their transportation strategies beforehand...no jumping out of the car before the race and jumping back into it afterwards.  On the other hand, at home I can just flick "pause" to take a bathroom break (or leave it running). Back in the late 1940s science fiction writer Clifford Simak...one of the best in my opinion...wrote a series of tales in which our society in the future would evolve to where people lived lives of rural seclusion, hardly ever directly interacting with one another and depending on robots to serve them and vicarious entertainment to fulfill themselves.  Move over future, here we are now...at least in my "section of the woods"...

Looking at Upcoming Running Races...and Some Missing Ones

I'm looking at upcoming distance running races in my local area in Gainesville and surrounding locales, so I decided to check out the Web to see what's up.  I was surprised to discover that there's a 10K race this coming Saturday morning to be held on the paved Hawthorne Trail southeast of town with the starting and finishing line at Boulware Springs Park.  I'm not interested in shorter distances than 10 K (6.2 miles) and think it might be fun to try this one out.  The only problem is that I do get off from work at 10 the previous evening and would have preferred a Sunday race day instead.  Oh well...

While checking out that upcoming race I also looked to see whether there was any hint of revival for three of my favorite races: the 10K Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot and the Five Points of Life Half-Marathon here in Gainesville and the Ocala Half-Marathon.  All three events were halted in 2020 because of Covid and only the Five Points race resumed this past February...but even that one seems to not be scheduled.  That's sad, but understandable, I suppose.  It seems the general trend for races in these times is to hold them on outlying sites like parks and rails-to-trails courses where the overhead expenses may be lighter on the organizers.  Earlier this year there was a very flexibly run race of multiple distances down in Ocala, completely contained on a looping 5K course inside a park...the distance options ranged from 5K all the way to 50 miles!  But I can't seem to find any indication that its parent company, "Awesomesauce" is even still in existence...certainly no more races seem to be in the works for 2023.  That's one thing that bugs me about the Internet, where you supposedly can get any information that you want.  Well, that's clearly not true, for when someone decides to close shop on something...even if it's gone on for years...they usually just leaving you hanging with no information, wondering whatever the hell happened... 

Is LifeSouth Finished Holding Half-Marathons in Gainesville?

From what I can gather at this time, LifeSouth, which is the main nonprofit blood donor organization here in Gainesville, isn't planning to stage their annual Five Points of Life race weekend in February any more...I hope I'm wrong.  I keep checking the race calendars on the Internet and, while other races are scheduled in February, Five Points is nowhere to be seen.  While waiting for me at the finish line this past February at their last half-marathon, Melissa heard one of the volunteers express that this may well be their last race.  I hope it isn't so, as since 2010 I've run the Five Points Half-Marathon six different times.  Before this year and last (canceled due to Covid) they also staged a 26.2-mile marathon event, something that I've played around with doing ever since I hobbled to the finish line with an IT-band injury in the only marathon race I ever ran, in 2011 in Ocala. By the way, that event, the Ocala Marathon/Half-Marathon, has already been relegated to the past...I ran one of my best half-marathons in it in 2013.  I wonder if we're entering a different social climate that is more hostile toward these open, public running races...I'm guessing that there had to be a considerable expense involved in just having the police regulate traffic during the Gainesville and Ocala races, and most likely many folks were unhappy at the traffic interruptions.  Also, the Covid-19 pandemic turned the public away from crowded events and many are reticent to resume things as before until it's over...which may never happen. The 10K Turkey Trot Thanksgiving run at Tacachale here in Gainesville, which I've enjoyed participating in a number of times, may be a permanent casualty of the disease. I see on Facebook where a number of informal running groups have sprung up and have runs in various locations...but I'm more of a solitary than social runner unless there's an actual race involved.  The Florida Track Club is still involved with two long-distance runs: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon in November and its own marathon/half-marathon event along the Hawthorne Trail in January.  Plus, there is something called the Cupcake Run that takes place along the same trail but originates from nearby Hawthorne.  There are still plenty of racing opportunities, but I'll miss the Five Points half-marathon if it is truly at the end of its "run"... 

Are City-Wide Running Races Fading Into the Past?

In his autobiographical book Ultramarathon Man, distance runner Dean Karnazes relates how his first marathon run went.  He was in high school and there was a charity drive in which donors would sign up to pay...if my memory serves me correctly...a dollar for each quarter-mile track lap the participating student ran.  Most reasonable people saw themselves pitching in up to 5 or 10 bucks.  But Karnazes saw fit to run his first full 26.2 mile marathon that day, circling the track 105 times...and then presenting his flabbergasted fellow students with the bill!  It must have been an awfully repetitive run for him...yet that's pretty much how track and field events are conducted.  It certainly is vastly different from the marathon and half-marathon races the past few decades, which often run through the heart of cities and spotlight their own attractions for the racers and those accompanying them.  Typically, streets are marked off and policemen stand at crossings to halt traffic, letting the runners pass through without having to stop...this must cost a pretty penny for the organizers.  I think it also would tend to annoy a lot of folks who just want to go about their normal business without this kind of disruption and delay.  Over my running "career" since 2010...in which I've confined my races to northern and central Florida... I've completed 13 half-marathons and one marathon.  Of these, 6 half-marathons took place in the heart of Gainesville for the Five Points of Life event held in February, 2 races on the south side of Ocala, and 1 in the Tavares-Mount Dora area of Lake County...the others were deliberately conducted in predominantly rural settings.  Even the Ocala races took place mostly on country roads, although the traffic was high enough there to require a bit of police presence and management.  A few years ago the Ocala Marathon/Half-Marathon ceased to be, and in 2020 Gainesville's Five Points organizers switched the race site away from central Gainesville to southwest of town.  After Covid pre-empted the 2021 races, they resumed...back to the heart of town with a modified course that still had runners going through downtown Gainesville, the University of Florida campus (including the football stadium) and the famous hills of NW 16th Avenue.  But the marathon event was eliminated, leaving the half-marathon as the only long-distance event here in February.  Gainesville has another annual half-marathon they hold annually, the Tom Walker Memorial, which uses the rails-to-trails Hawthorne Trail in a there-and-back race emanating from Boulware Springs Park in the southeastern part of town...no police or city infrastructure needed here.  And that's the trend I see coming: races far from streets and set in rural areas and parks.  Furthermore, I see another trend in which half-marathons, marathons, and even ultra-races (longer than 26.2 miles) are being conducted in parks where runners go through multiple loops to achieve the distance they're seeking.  Next Sunday, the 10th, there will be such a race on the Hawthorne end of the Hawthorne Trail...half-marathoners will do a 6-plus mile there-and back on the trail twice, while those running the marathon will do it four times.  But then again, the overhead cost for staging this race is bound to be much, much lower than had they done it through city streets.  On June 18, Ocala has their own similar race planned at their southeastern Baseline Greenway Park...the course loop is a little longer than a mile and half-marathon runners will do it 12 times (no marathon race planned here).  Since 2019 (with a 14-month gap because of Covid), Gainesville has had its own weekly race, the Depot Parkrun 5K, with takes place entirely on park grounds and involves 4 laps to achieve the distance...but it's free and not very long.  The Hawthorne and Ocala races I just mentioned cost a bit of money...the question is whether runners will decide to forgo the adventure of the course in favor of getting a posted result.  As for me, I'm undecided.  I look on the Internet running calendars and still see races occurring in other cities across the country...maybe this drawing back from urban events is only a local phenomenon, who knows...

Looking to Run 15K or Half-Marathon in Ocala on the 20th

Back in the 2011 Ocala Marathon, which featured a course running through beautiful horse country south of the city, I managed to painfully finish it despite an IT-band injury just below my right knee causing sharp pain whenever I ran.  I had gotten to about the 10-mile mark with no real trouble, but that pain then began to make itself known and intensified to the point when I had to alternate short runs with short walks...walking at a moderate pace caused little pain.  By the 19-mile mark I told a volunteer that I was ready to quit the race...she encouraged me to walk out the rest of it so that I could say that I finished a marathon.  Well, I did just that, finishing in around 6 hours.  After that I abandoned marathon races and focused on half-marathons as my distance race of choice...I've completed 11 of them so far, including the Ocala Half-Marathon in 2013 when I finished with my second-best time for that distance at 1:55:20. Since then I've never gone back down there and the race organizers themselves abandoned the marathon event, transforming their annual January race into a choice between the half-marathon, 15K, 10K, and 5K distances.  This year it's coming up on Sunday the 20th, and after being informed that I can wait until race-day morning to register on-site, I'm seriously considering going down there.  But which race would I run...

Ideally, running and finishing a half-marathon is what I want, but I finished a local 15K (9.3 miles) race a month ago and kind of like that distance, too.  Next month I plan to run my 6th Five Points Half-Marathon here in Gainesville (I hear they're going to have a completely different race course, sad to say), so I can defer a half-marathon run to that time.  No, I'm thinking maybe that a 15K in Ocala might do me well this time around, but I probably won't know for sure which race to run until I get there...

My September 2017 Running Report

In September I had to contend with some soreness in my right foot, as well as some back strain issues...limiting my ability to train.  I missed seven days of running because of this, but managed somehow to run a total of 47 miles during the month.  My longest single run was for just 3.5 miles...it's been a while since I've run anything on the order of middle distance, much less the long distances that I prefer...

So with the weather supposedly cooling a bit this coming month, I should hopefully be able to get back to increasing my mileage.  It sounds like a broken record, for my running so far in 2017 has not been anywhere near what I want it to be.  Yet I think I may have solved that foot problem by going back to the protective shoes I used to wear...ever since I switched back, my feet seem fine.  In any event, I will need to drastically get back my endurance over longer distances if I'm to run upcoming races this fall and winter.  And I'd better hurry up: the Tom Walker Memorial Half-Marathon SE of Gaineville will be held November 11, just six weeks from now.  And then there's the 10K Turkey Trot on the Tacachale campus in NE Gainesville on Thanksgiving.  Next year will spotlight the Ocala Half-Marathon and the 15K Newnan's Lake Run, both in January, and the Five Points of Light Half-Marathon here in Gainesville in February.  A grand total of five middle-to-long distance races in our immediate area.  If I can remain healthy, I should be able to swing this...

Skipped Planned Ocala Half-Marathon This Morning

This morning I passed up on running my planned Ocala Half-Marathon due to either a severe food allergy reaction or a viral attack yesterday...most likely the former.  The problem with either of these is that they cause general inflammation throughout my body, and I have been advised by my physician to be on guard with this sort of thing when considering stressing out my body on long runs.  It is disappointing that I missed this race, which I had been looking forward to for a while.  Still, I'd rather err on the side of caution and not be foolhardy with my actions. This morning, as it turned out, I felt much better and have already run 3.5 miles.  I'll still have the opportunity to run in Gainesville's FivePoints Half-Marathon next month...but I think I'm going to delay my registration until the last possible moment...these races aren't cheap to enter!

Oh, by the way, my prediction (in an earlier article) of a downward spike in temperature was borne out, with it getting down to around 35 this morning at race time...

Signed Up to Run Next Sunday's Ocala Half-Marathon

Get ready for a downward spike in temperatures next Sunday morning here in the Gainesville-Ocala area, for once again I am running in Ocala's distance running event then...and it ALWAYS is super-cold (i.e. below freezing) whenever I run one of these races in Gainesville or Ocala, for some perverse reason.  Just once I'd like the temperature at race time to be around 45 degrees or so... still somewhat cold...but pleasantly so.  But maybe, just maybe, this time around it will be a little bit warmer.

I had a good ten-mile run yesterday and have a lot of confidence in running this upcoming race, especially after doing better than I expected in December's Palm Coast Starlight Half-Marathon.  I've run this course twice before, in 2011 and 2013...and 2011's race was a full 26.2-mile marathon (in which I suffered an IT band injury under my right knee and had to walk the last seven miles).  I would have preferred to be a regular marathon runner, but the training for this long distance seems to predispose me to injury.  It's too bad they instead don't have 20-mile races, or even 30K races (18.6 miles)...I think I could regularly handle those distances.  Still, I'd like to run another marathon, even considering the upcoming Gainesville FivePoints event in February for this.  But it will depend greatly on how I feel as I approach the online registration deadline and have to decide whether to run the full marathon or the half-marathon (which I've done here in 2010 and 2014)...

Gainesville and Ocala Marathons Compared

Gainesville and Ocala, two modest-sized north central Florida cities, hold marathon races a month apart. The Ocala Marathon, which I just completed by humbly limping across the finish line with a leg injury, emphasizes a "country" course, dominated by horse farms and large rural estates. Gainesville's LifeSouth Five Points event, which takes place in three weeks (I ran in its half-marathon last year), goes right through the heart of town, an urban experience. Having run in each race, I have my own conclusions as to which course is more wisely designed.

In the first place, it needs to be noted that anyone who is in shape to run a marathon can run their own event by themselves by simply designing their own course. I accomplished this on January 15, using Mapmyrun.com to measure out my distances to cover the needed 26.2 miles (I ran 26.6 then). I began the run in my driveway and ended it there. Pretty convenient, right? For one to run in a public race, there needs to be a different kind of payoff to cover the drawbacks of such a run ($60-100 entry fees, unpredictable weather conditions and personal health issues on race day, travel expenses and complications, getting time off from work, etc). Some runners feel the need to publicly "prove" or verify to others that they indeed have completed a marathon, so just privately doing it (like I did on the 15th) just won't cut it for them. Another factor that can serve as an attraction for participation in a marathon is the "tourist" angle: getting to know different places more intimately by simply running down their streets. It is here that I would like to compare the Gainesville and Ocala marathon events.

The Gainesville Five Points Marathon is, as said, urban in nature. It is designed to go straight down some of the busiest streets in Gainesville as well as passing through some historic districts and the University of Florida campus. The Ocala Marathon, by contrast, promotes its course of scenic rural roads, supposedly away from all of the traffic congestion. But this is a completely false argument: I had MUCH MORE trouble with cars in Ocala than I did in Gainesville. As a matter of fact, runners were told that, for much of the race, they would be "sharing the road" with motorists. Unfortunately, I don't think that many of the motorists there were aware that they were supposed to "share the road" with the runners!

Another advantage that Gainesville had over Ocala was that the course for the former was completely non-repeating, while with the latter there was much "there-and-back" retracing of paths and, for the marathoners, the need to repeat an eight-mile long loop. Besides this repetition making the Ocala course more tedious than Gainesville's, Ocala also had to keep street lanes closed for the runners for much longer than with Gainesville, which could gradually reopen roads as the lagging runners passed different points. The result was relative order in a largely urban race and congestion in a supposedly rural one.

Finally, I don't know about you, but once I've seen two or three horse farms and cow pastures, along with a few wealthy estates sprinkled in, I tend to lose interest in my surroundings. But put me in the heart of a city, even within Ocala for that matter, and there is always something interesting to draw my attention and make the journey more enjoyable.

So I guess you can tell which town I prefer to run a marathon in (or a half-marathon, for that matter). Gainesville rules!