Discover Jacksonville 2017

SPORTS
in 2010, the Sharks previously won the
sport's championship by capturing the
ArenaBowl in 2011. In 2016, the team
reached the Arena Football League's
semifinals, losing to the eventual
champion Philadelphia Soul. The Sharks
will compete in a new indoor league for
the 2017 season.
The city's professional soccer
franchise, the Jacksonville Armada,
competes in the North American Soccer
League, which is designated as a Division
2 league by the United States Soccer
Federation. The Armada began play
in 2015, setting a league attendance
record and scoring a league-record 12
seconds into its inaugural game. The
team plays at the Baseball Grounds. The
Armada finished out of the playoffs for
the second consecutive year, though a
young attack showed improvement in
the final two months. Mark Lowry, the
NASL's youngest coach, was appointed in
October 2016.
Jacksonville has a long and
prominent running tradition,
highlighted by the Gate River Run,
officially recognized by USA Track
and Field as the nation's 15-kilometer
championship. Each year, more than
20,000 runners participate in events
during the race weekend, which has
attracted Olympic medalists, including
Meb Keflezighi, Joan Benoit and Deena
Kastor. The route winds through
downtown Jacksonville, San Marco
and St. Nicholas before crossing the
Hart Bridge — the punishing "Green
Monster" — and finishing next to
EverBank Field. The 2016 races were won
by Stanley Kebenei and Tara Welling,
both of whom went on to compete
at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Special
preparations are in place for the 2017
race, the 40th in Gate River Run history.
In February, thousands of runners
take to the streets for the 26.2 With
Donna, the nation's largest marathon
created specifically to raise funds for the
fight against breast cancer. First held in
2008, the race has raised more than $4
million for breast cancer research and
support. The 2017 event, which takes
runners across Ponte Vedra Beach,
Jacksonville Beach and Neptune Beach,
will be the 10th in the event's history.
The city also holds another
competition at the longest of the
standard running distances, the
annual Jacksonville Marathon. The
winter event takes runners on a 26.2-
mile run through the Mandarin and
Beauclerc areas, just a short distance
east of the St. Johns River. The January
2016 competition, the 33rd edition,
included the race's strongest field to date,
Top Women’s runner and equalizer bonus winner Tara Welling crosses the finish line at the 2016 Gate River Run.
(Bob Self/Florida Times-Union)
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