The AJC Peachtree Road Race is a 44 year Atlanta tradition. Starting with 110 runners in 1970, the race
has grown to be the largest 10K in the world at 60,000 participants. To quote the boss, Bruce Springsteen, "Getting an audience is hard. Sustaining an audience is hard. It demands a consistency of thought, of purpose, and of action over a long period of time." With that said, let's get down to the race recap!
This was my 7th time running this event and it
did not disappoint. The weather was a
perfect cool 66 degrees with what felt like very little humidity. This was a perfect day for a race to
celebrate our country’s independence, US 10K championships, and kick off the
holiday weekend. I felt very good going
into the race. I had a great training
period, no nagging injuries, and respectable tune up races where I felt
relatively comfortable toeing the start line.
Ahhh… but today was proof that even the best build up, doesn’t
translate well on race day. Overall, I
had a great race… but it was definitely 2 different races. The first half of the race went according to
plan. Oh, but that second
half is where I went full on survival mode…
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| Let's go, let's go!! |
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| I'm giving you all she's got Capt'n!! |
I attribute several reasons why the drastic drop in pace,
started out faster than I should have, stomach issues at mile 4, Cardiac hill
is all they say it is. All of that doesn’t
really matter… I ran my race and very happy with the results…
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| 3 years running strong!!! |
The Bad
For all that was good about the race I struggled to find
something negative to say about the event.
Sure there was the issue with the T-shirts, but this isn't the first time it has happened (Peachtree
History) and with a race this size I’m sure it won’t be the last. Sure there was the issue with race
timing. Let’s put this in perspective… there
were 57,556 official finishers; of which 28,724 where men and 28,832 where women. For the Atlanta Track Club (ATC) to organize
and put on an event of this scale, +/- 15 seconds in some cases, is not
unreasonable to have a glitch or two.
The key thing is that once the issue was realized it was quickly
resolved. Having ran several races of
smaller scale I can tell you I haven’t seen race directors/organizations
rectify the situation as quickly as ATC did.
Moving on… now I saw reports of food shortages at the finish
line. Many of the back of the pack
runners unfortunately didn’t have any food when they finished the race. One can only speculate some of the reasons
for this. I can only guess this was
brought about by 2 factors… happy and energetic volunteers willing to give what
they had to the runners, and runners taking enough food to feed their
family. As stated, Peachtree is an
annual tradition. A race this size
brings out all types of runners from the beginner to more advanced runner. Many of the people running Peachtree are
either first time runners or only run this one event each year. I’m of the opinion that the majority of the
runners treated this event like a local BBQ or family reunion. ‘It’s a party, there’s food everywhere, I’m
entitled to it, and so is my family’.
The only thing I will say to that is yes it’s a celebration, but for
those of us who are fortunate enough to finish early let’s remember there are
many other runners still out on the course.
It’s up to the veteran runners to spread the word about race etiquette
not only to the new runners but the family and friends that come to cheer you
on. It’s an unrealistic expectation to think
the race organizers will have a bottomless supply of food (and T-shirts – stick
with the shirt you ordered; resolve it later).
The Ugly
Drum roll… There is
no ugly. ATC put on a great race. This was the 44th year of the
Peachtree, 57,556 finishers, +3,500 volunteers, and more than 200,000 people
cheering. There were people who ran
their first race/Peachtree and those that celebrated their 20th
running. Then there was Meb Keflezighi,
2014 Boston Marathon winner, who did the unthinkable… started at the very end and
past 22,780 runners to raise money for the Kilometer Kids program. It was truly an awesome event, an awesome
day, and a great way to celebrate Independence Day. An event like this, in my opinion, there is
nothing ugly.
Keep Running!!
Jerome
Jerome
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| Keep Running!!! |
