The 39th running of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race will have a new finish line — thanks to the severe drought — but the Independence Day trek down Peachtree for the 55,000 participants won't end at 6.2 miles.

Today the Atlanta Track Club will officially announce that the race will conclude at the intersection of Juniper Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown, according to Tracey Russell, the club's executive director. The 10-kilometer (or 6.2 miles) race had finished at Piedmont Park since 1978, but the City of Atlanta ruled last month that it would ban large events (those that attract 50,000 or more people) from city parks due to the drought.

The new route means finishers will have to keep moving after the race and walk another four and half blocks to the Atlanta Civic Center, site of the family meeting area, awards stage and sponsors village. That final stage traditionally had been held in Piedmont's meadow in the southeast corner of the park, where hot, tired runners would spill into Piedmont Park to grab water bottles, collect their T-shirts, and hang out as the rest of the runners piled in.

With the persistent drought, the city can no longer water the park's grass, requiring the relocation of the world's largest 10K race, along with the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival and the Atlanta Pride Festival. Russell expects the change to be temporary and that the race should be able to return to Piedmont after drought conditions improve.

"We will have many of the same elements we had in the park set up along the street and in the parking lots around the Civic Center," said Russell. "Ensuring runner safety and flow of participants after they finish is paramount. With the limitations of no green space available for the race, we found this new location to be our best option."

Russell says the new route amounts to "just an extra turn" near the end of the race, and that only six-tenths of a mile of the course will be run over a different route.

After crossing the new finish line, runners will continue walking for almost a mile to reach the Civic Center: one block south on Juniper, then east on North Avenue for one block, and then south on Piedmont Avenue to the Civic Center.

With limited green space under foot and the walk to the Civic Center, it's likely to be a hot cooldown this July, although Russell said T-shirts and bottled water will be doled out during the walk.

Jonathan Majors, training Monday for what he hopes will be his first Peachtree Road Race, said he figures he can handle the additional mile.

"Four blocks shouldn't be that big of a deal," said Majors, 23, of Atlanta. "Of course I've never run it before, so I won't know the difference."

It won't be the first time that Peachtree runners had to walk to get to the final staging area. In 2002, construction closed half the 185-acre park, including the meadow, and runners had to walk a half-mile through Piedmont to get their T-shirts. Few complaints were heard about the change, and race medical staff even reported that the cooldown helped reduce serious injuries.

"It was annoying [in 2002], but there was still all the camaraderie of the race," Michael Lavallee, 43, of Lawrenceville, who ran his first Peachtree in 1995 and has run every one since, except one. "For the people who might be crying about this, would they rather stay home? I'm just glad they came up with a solution. We'll just carry on."

Bill Thorn, 77, of Fairburn, who has run in every Peachtree also took a carry-on attitude. "The organizers have looked at it close enough to know what we need to do," he said. " Even if you have to make some adjustments, you do what you need to do or you don't have it."

Karen Baumbach, 54, of Sandy Springs, who has run or spectated at 20 Peachtrees, said her traditional post-race get-together of 25 to 30 people in the meadow will just have to move.

"I will finish wherever they want me to finish," she said.

Staff writers Christian Boone and Stan Awtrey contributed to this article