Like other runners in the Nocatee Trailblazer Run Saturday, Kim Pawelek used the 5-kilometer, 3.1-mile event as a warmup to this Saturday's Gate River Run in Jacksonville.

As a "fun run" it's great," said Pawelek, a champion runner in many area races who will try out for the U.S. Olympic marathon team in the Boston Marathon next month.

"It's great to support a new race and it's a new running scene," Pawelek said. "It's exciting."

The race, which also included a 1-mile run for children, was the first event open to the public in the new Nocatee community west of Ponte Vedra Beach, said Portland Stuart, marketing director for the Parc Group, the Nocatee developer.

She said it was scheduled a week before the Gate River Run so it could be a warmup for runners of all ages. About 300 participants registered for what Stuart said will be an annual event.

Richard Ray, a Parc Group partner, was one of them.

As runners gathered by the starting line on Crosswater Parkway near the Preservation Trail intersection, Ray said the area will look much different a year from now.

Clearing for the Town Center, which will sit at that crossroads, just began, he said. It is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2009.