JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The 12th annual Donna Marathon starts Saturday morning with a variety of runs and events before the big Donna Foundation 26.2, the national marathon to finish breast cancer, on Sunday.
Donna Deegan, a breast cancer survivor, began a foundation in 2009 and uses the marathons to raise money for breast cancer research and care for breast cancer patients who need financial assistance to battle the disease.
This year's runs will be held in Neptune and Atlanta Beach with the Beaches Town Center the epicenter of the weekend events. The shift means the Intracoastal Bridge is no longer a part of the route. That makes the Boston Marathon-qualifying course, already one of Florida’s fastest, an even greater opportunity for setting new personal records.
Since its inception in 2008, Donna Marathon Weekend has raised nearly $6 million in funding for the foundation, moving over 12,000 families living with breast cancer from a place of fear to one of love by providing assistance and support when it is needed most. The Donna Foundation has also disbursed more than $3.3 million of race proceeds to the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer Translational Genomics Research Program.
Click here for more information on the various runs, festivities and road closures scheduled for the weekend.