JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Wesley Kiptoo and Calli Hauger-Thackery are the winners of the 48th Gate River Run.
The American 15K record for men is held by Todd Williams with a time of 42:22, set at the Gate River Run in 1995; the women’s record is held by Shalane Flanagan with a time of 47:00, also set at the Gate River Run in 2014. Kiptoo broke the record with a time of 42:10.
Hauger-Thackery finished shortly after Kiptoo.
Hayleigh Haid won the 2025 First Coast Cup.
The iconic 15K road race on Saturday has hit its capacity and all systems are a go for a race filled with notable changes all over the course.
The biggest shifts are new start and finish lines on Gator Bowl Blvd. and a new post-race area at Metro Park as construction in and around downtown have shuffled things all around. The expo moved from the Fairgrounds area to Daily’s Place, and there should be more favorable parking for racers and watchers come Saturday morning.
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One notable thing that should appeal to runners in the final stretch — a view of the finish line from the Green Monster, the Hart Bridge.
“You’ll be able to see that finish all the way from the very top. I kind of visualized myself today as I was coming over the bridge to come here,” said Julie Stackhouse, part of the News4JAX broadcast team for the event who has won the First Coast Cup multiple times as the top local finisher.
“What that feeling feels like, I have chills thinking about it right now, when you see that finish line, you know it’s all downhill, and really, you’ve just come off of a really tough uphill climb, but then it’s just all downhill to the finish.”
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The first wave of runners, the adaptive athletes and the River Run’s 18 streakers who have done all 47 previous races, go off at 7:50 a.m. The top 25 seeded women hear the gun at 7:55. At 8, the elite runners who have bibs numbered 1 to 250 will go off. Every five minutes thereafter until 8:15, the one additional wave of runners will start.
There are 57 elite runners in the field (36 men, 21 women).
Athanas Kioko, a 30-year-old from Kenya who runs out of Winston Salem, NC, holds the No. 1 bib. His best time in a 10-mile run is a time of 46:11 in Dec. 2022 in Dalton, Ga. That number translates to a 42:52 over a 15K course, which would put Kioko on a pace to potentially challenge Todd Williams’ River Run record of 42:22 from 1995. Conditions are expected to be favorable for runners on Saturday.
