My first Peachtree Road Race

I am 42 years old and have lived in Georgia all my life, in the Atlanta area for almost 25 years, and this is my first time ever to run the famous Peachtree Road Race. Over 55,000 runners braved the humidity and new tougher ending route for the 39th running of the PRR. I made the short 30 minute trip to Atlanta with the Peachtree City Running Club in one of two chartered buses that promised to drop us off near the start and meet us at the finish.


Being still in my first year of running and not knowing many people in the runing club I thought it would be a good chance to meet some more people. I rode up there in the party bus which was not much of a party bus at 5:30am. Most people slept or were very quiet on the trip to the big city. We were dropped off at the intersection of Piedmont and Peachtree which is about a 1/2 mile south of the Start Line. The race course is not a loop but a one way route south on Peachtree Road from Lenox Mall down to 10th St where this year it took a right turn on Juniper, south to the Finish on Ponce De Leon Ave.

My normal running buddies had no interest in running this race and you have sign up early to even get a number. We had about 1 hour before the race started and I made my way to the runner staging area where runners were stretching, warming up, and making the normal long queue to the last pit stop before heading to the start line.

My bib number was 22013 which put me in group 2 just behind the sub seeded runners. To get a sub seeded bib number and a timing chip for the race you have to turn in proof of a previous finish below 54:59. I didnt know this when I ran my 10K back in March which I completed in 55:29. Thirty seconds from being able to get a chip for my first PRR. I turned in my time anyway and that gave me a position in group 2 which I found out after the race made the race a lot more enjoyable. When I made my way in to the Group 2 holding area I recognized 4 runners from Peachtree City. The running club seems to have a lot of runners that have been running for more than 25 years. This was the clubs 27th trip as a group to the PRR. I chatted with Anne Shoemaker and her son while waiting for the race to start. Her son, Adam was planning to run the race in a hour and that sounded like a good pace to me so I thought I would run with him. Anne had a bum knee and was planning to walk the 10k.

Being in group 2 we ended up starting about 7 minutes behind the seeded runners. Later I found that some runners would not cross the start line for almost another hour. The race course is pretty flat for the first mile. The course is lined up and down Peachtree with thousands of spectators, family, partiers, and volunteers. I didnt want to start too fast and when I got to the first mile marker my time was 9:15, which I thought was pretty good. I decided to leave the heart rate monitor and garmin at home and go with just my lap timer on my timex. I have tough time keeping a steady pace. I fear burning out and not being able to finish strong. When I got to mile 2 my lap time was 8:55. I felt good but I thought it might be too fast. Between miles 2 and 3 was all downhill, but that is when the course gets tough. The famous Cardiac hill that is between Peachtree Battle up to Collier Rd is said to be the toughest. I think I had benefitted from the hill training becuase I passed a lot of people on the hill. On the hill you pass the Shepherd Spinal Center. The patients from the center are lined up on the street cheering the runners up the hill. It was quite a tremendous lift to have that support from people that were going through so much. There was no way I was going to stop and walk. After getting over the hill I knew at about mile 4 my sister who lives on the route was going to be waiting for me to come by. I saw her, got a cheer and a high five and the boost I needed to go hard on the next hill. The hill from Deering up past Spring I thought was the toughest for me. I still didnt stop but I was concerned about going to hard because I didnt want to run out of steam. After you pass Spring, Peachtree Rd makes a big turn and you still have a gradual grade till you get almost to 10th Street. My mile 5 pace was my slowest at 10:15. The old course use to turn left on 10th and head downhill to Piedmont Park. Due to the drought the course now turns right on Juniper, uphill to the finish at Ponce De Leon. I had seen the Juniper hill before when I ran the Half Marathon in March so I knew what to expect. My mile 6 split was 8:44, my fastest of the race and I was passing a lot of runners on the hill. I ended the race with a clock time of 1:04:38 and a net time of 57:38 based on my watch. Not a PR, but considering the tough course I was pleased with my time.

After the finishing I had to find the meeting spot for the running club, which based on the directions we got were a few blocks from where the race festivities were being held. After walking around lost for a while I spotted another club member, also lost, and we both finally found the group. We rested in the shade of the park for about an hour for everyone to complete the race and then got back on the buses and back to Peachtree City. Next year I will run with a chip! And lets just say the the party bus was a little wilder on the way home.