The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race isn’t your average 10-kilometer race, catering to 60,000 runners, some running, some walking, over a course from Lenox Mall Square to Piedmont Park.
While a number of race-day conditions can’t be controlled -- including this year’s starting conditions that were tabbed as the hottest in more than a decade -- the course itself is one thing that doesn’t change. From year to year, it remains the same 10K path that challenges professionals and novices alike.
“It has a little bit of everything,” said Tracey Russell, Atlanta Track Club executive director and Peachtree race director. “The course is downhill through the first three miles, and then there’s a tough climb through mile four.”
Advertised as the largest 10K in the world, the Peachtree has become a road-racing institution.
“It’s a great tour of Atlanta through one of the most famous streets,” Russell said.
Over the years, runners have come to expect the hill that awaits them -- an ascent near Piedmont Hospital that has earned itself the nickname “Cardiac Hill.”
The 10K course ranges in elevation from 1,017 feet at Piedmont Road to 817 feet at Peachtree Creek two miles later.
To accommodate the changes in elevation, as well as the various hills of the course, participants have made slight adjustments in their racing styles to find success.
In the wheelchair division, Tatyana McFadden earned her second consecutive Peachtree title, with a time of 24:46. Familiar with the course, McFadden played to her strengths during the uphill stretches of the course to edge ahead of her competition.
“I needed to make sure that I got my focus for the uphill, because that’s where my strengths are,” McFadden said. “I’m not a coaster like some of the other girls are.”
Early in the race, the runners at the head of the pack posted incredible times at the two-mile split. But that pace began to slow as the race continued on. Still, first-place finisher Sammy Kitwara noticed a particular racing pattern among the top runners.
For much of the 6.2-mile race, the top male elite runners ran in a tight pack, a style that suited Kitwara’s running.
“In Kenya, you have to train in packs together,” Kitwara said of his running days in Africa. “When someone goes fast, you go faster with them and adjust.”
In the end, the course remains one of the many elements that make the Peachtree a road race a memorable experience.
“It was a great course, phenomenal,” top American runner Ben True said.
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