As a treat to the 55,000 runners participating in this year's Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race on July 4, Sports Photo Editor David Tulis thought it'd be fun to do a timelapse movie from the starting area at Lenox Square Mall.

We began our "movie" even before starter Tommy Owens lowered his arm signaling the beginning of the wheelchair division race at 6:55 a.m. And we kept the camera clicking until after the last runner crossed the starting line around 9 a.m.

After the wheelchair racers are 100 invited runners, including defending men's champion Martin Lel and and women's winner Lornah Kiplagat. Hot on their heels are 1,000 other seeded runners plus the rest of the 6,500 members making up Time Group One.

The remaining 50,000 runners are randomly divided into eight time groups with about 6,200 runners in each. The groups are spaced out by three minutes, with the last group starting more than an hour after the elite runners began.

How we did it: This timelapse movie is actually a combination of 1,488 still images shot with a Nikon D2Hs camera and 17-35mm lens. Each second of movement equals a minute of real time. The rig was suspended from a 60-foot hydraulically operated bucket truck spanning three lanes of Peachtree Road (so you might notice a little bouncing of the camera). The music is courtesy of ajc.com multimedia producer Bryan Perry who scoured his archives for an inspiring score.

Photos by David Tulis/AJC Sports Photo Editor
Produced by Bryan Perry/ajc.com