More than 250 people got up early Saturday morning and went for a run in an effort to be more healthy.
The Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon at the Gainesville-Hawthorne State Trail, organized by the Florida Track Club, was a way for the organization to help people develop an interest in running and promote a healthy lifestyle, said Mark Ou, the race coordinator for the Florida Track Club.
"Seeing people finish the race with excitement is more rewarding than any race I've ever finished," Ou said. "Seeing them enjoying running that much just blows me away."
The trail caters to runners of all strengths, offering a route that allows for the ease of a road race with all the benefits of a trail race, he said.
The event itself is organized to be accessible for even the newest of runners.
Ou said the Florida Track Club strives for a professional experience, sometimes forfeiting funds.
"It's never been our intention to profit off of races," he said.
This year, the club made a point of providing its runners with a more complete race by partnering with Milestone Race Authority, a company which, according to its website, offers the newest technology in timing to "enhance the race-day experience."
Milestone Race Authority uses a timing system developed by Innovative Timing Systems called Jaguar. The system can measure times to one-thousandth of a second at speeds up to 180 mph.
"The bane of most races is that you finish early, and then you have to wait around for an hour or two for the results and rewards," said Jim Shields, a Milestone Race Authority supervisor at the Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon. "In the end now, we're going to get fast times with extremely fast results."
Ou said the new time keeping system increased the operational costs of the race, but it was worth the cost to better the runners' experience.
Vivek Iyer, a biological chemistry senior, said the race-day environment helped him feel more comfortable with running his first half marathon.
While some runners prefer cold temperatures like those on Saturday, he said the weather added to the difficulty of the race, because training took place in warm-weather conditions.
"Around mile 10, my legs started to shake, and all I could think about was taking one more step," Iyer said. "The encouragement of my friends and those around definitely kept me going."
The winner was Samuel Palmer, 23, from Oviedo, who finished the race in about an hour and 16 minutes.
