Capital City kicked off the 42nd annual Tallahassee Marathon Sunday, with it’s brand new course and brand new finish line.
For the first time in the 42-year history of the marathon, the new course traveled through neighborhoods and business districts in and around downtown Tallahassee. Runners were now able to travel through more landmarks throughout the area.
“The previous course went out to the Saint Marks Trail and back so it was a completely flat course and took the runners through one small journey,” Rosario said.
More than 1,300 runners ran through Downtown, Midtown, Cascades Park, Florida State University and local neighborhoods, such as Glenview and historic Myers Park. Welcoming them at the end of their trip was the newly painted finish line on Duval Street next to the Kleman Plaza.
The city officials approved the new, permanent finish line and it was installed Jan. 31.
This new landmark was a welcoming sight for the marathon runners as they marked the end of either 26.2 or 13.1-mile.
“I pushed forward the idea of a permanent finish line to city officials and they were all on board with it,” Ely Rosario, coordinator of the Tallahassee Marathon, said.
Rosario said she got the idea of the permanent finish line from the Boston Marathon. Rosario thought that it was one of the most inimitable things that stood out for the marathon.
Everyone was also encouraged to share their race day memories on social media using #OwnTally.
“Own Tally is about people going out and enjoying running throughout the city and enjoying a lot of the areas they may not been able to before,” Eric Godin, co-coordinator of Tallahassee Marathon, said.
Both races began at 7:30 a.m. in front of the Leon County Courthouse at the corner of South Monroe and East Jefferson streets. The cut-off time for runners of the Tallahassee Marathon was 1:30 p.m.
Due to the new course spreading throughout the city, it caused for many roads in Tallahassee to be closed.
Matthew Mizereck, winner of the half marathon race discussed his preparation of the new course.
“Coming into this race I knew it was going to be extremely hilly, but it was definitely an opportunity I wanted to explore because you don’t get to run on these kind of streets and it was brutal but a lot of fun as well,” Mizereck said.
Mizereck continued to say he was training for the shorter, faster races to prepare him for the race, but he had an injury in his ankle just recently and he did not think he would be able to run the marathon.
Mizereck said that he decided the day before the race that he was going to push through it and run.
For more information and to see maps of the race routes, visit TallahasseeMarathon.com/Race-Information.