Scenes from the Peachtree Road Race

Bennett, the daughter of Clyde and Gloria Bennett, is a medical illustration major at West Georgia. She designed the logo as part of a project for her Digital Media for Artists class, a senior-level class taught by Clint Samples.

Inspired by previous designs that featured the peach, Bennett drew her image with colored pencils, and then scanned it into the computer and began changing it slightly. After five alterations, she reached the winning entry that is now featured on more than 55,000 T-shirts. She also earned the $1,000 grand prize that she said she will apply toward graduate school.

"As a young person, having my work seen on a large scale is good exposure," said Bennett, a 20-year-old native of Augusta.

Torpey happy to run

Like many racers, Colin Torpey didn't care about his finishing time at Sunday's AJC Peachtree Road Race. He said he's just happy to run.

Torpey was born with bilateral club feet that corrective surgeries couldn't completely fix.

While the left leg is comparatively better, in April of 2009 he decided to have the lower part of his right leg amputated.

Six weeks later, he was walking with the help of a prosthetic. A few weeks after that, he decided to run the Peachtree Road Race.

With the help of physical therapists at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, he began training.

In March, he received his first athletic sports foot, a prosthetic that looks like a normal leg, but has a flat blade on the end where the foot would be.

He's been running two miles a day, and riding a bike for 3-4 miles.

With his mother, father, brother and his two physical therapists running along with him, he finished in slightly less than two hours.

"I feel awesome," said Torpey, a 19-year old Kennesaw State student. "I was in a little bit of pain during the race, but once I crossed the finish line... it's just awesome."

Weather wonderful

The runners raved about the weather conditions for Sunday's road race.

A temperature of 65 degrees at the start for the wheelchair athletes, who were first off, climbed to 80 degrees by the time the last runners crossed the finish line at the intersection of 10th Street and Charles Allen Drive, 2 1/2-three hours later.

"Excellent running weather," Janice Nadeau said.

A native of central Massachusetts, this was Nadeau's second Peachtree Road Race. She began participating in the event because friends and family members had been running in it.

Citing the good weather as the reason, medical officials at two tents in Piedmont Park said there were no out-of-the ordinary emergencies for any participants during or after the race.

Corbin family reunion

The Corbin family, led by 70-year-old patriarch John Corbin, continued its 33-year history with the AJC Peachtree Road Race.

Corbin and 19 relatives participated in the event Sunday and then gathered under one of the big trees in Piedmont Park to talk about the race and drink a few beers.

From there, they were going to the Varsity a few blocks away to "eat everything we can," he said. That's also a 33-year tradition.

After a day to recover, Corbin said they will begin planning for next year's race on Monday. They must plan the pre-race spaghetti dinner that John's wife, Sharon, prepares.

The feast includes six quarters of sauce that included five pounds of hamburger.

Corbin, who is retired, said the family doesn't run as a group because "it's every man for himself." He finished in 66 minutes and 21 seconds, 24 minutes off his best time set in 1987.

Competitively engaged

How he hid the ring in skimpy runner's shorts is a matter of debate, but Atlanta's Cameron Walts asked his girlfriend Catherine to marry him during last year's Bolder Boulder 10k race in Colorado.

Now married, they've since been running in 10k races all over the country. They are even traveling to London for a race next month.

Though he is the more experienced runner, she's been consistently beating him, which he said "is starting to hurt my ego."

He didn't get any help in Sunday's Peachtree Road Race.

At the four-mile mark, he said Catherine tapped him on the butt and said, "see you at the finish line." He lost again, this time by 30 seconds.

Staggeringly effective

The decision to stagger the starting times for different groups of runners in this year's AJC Peachtree Road Race seemed to work well. Race organizers made the move to help thin out the field of 50,000 runners.

"I think spreading out the start times like that was great," said Atlanta's Melissa Schenkman, who ran the race for the seventh time. "Within the first quarter of the mile you can see open space and get through slower runners than you."

Frustrated after getting caught up in the churn of runners in year's past, Atlanta's Michael Buchman gave up running in the race. He returned Sunday and seemed more satisfied.

"I still think there this is an issue with an overall size of the race just because it’s popular," he said.

Major race

This was Maj. Michael McGregor's first AJC Peachtree Road Race...but he's run it before.

Stationed in Baghdad last year, he participated in the Overseas Peachtree Road Race.

Impressed that the race organizers included the troops into their plans, McGregor said that when he returned to the Pentagon he would enter the race in Atlanta.

Joking that the course was a bit more hilly than the one in the deserts of Iraq, McGregor said he was thrilled to be in the race. He ran the 6.2 miles in 49:50.

Overseas, there were four version of the road race being run on Sunday: two in Iraq, and one each in Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Sgt. Rebecca Linder was the top female finisher in Afghanistan, running the race in 48:50. Jean-Christophe Saulnier, a soldier in the French army, was the top male finisher (40:14). In Kuwait, 1st Lt. Elias Gonzalez was the overall winner. Docaser Richard was the first female finisher. Times weren't given.

Colin Torpey

Like many racers, Colin Torpey didn't care about his finishing time at Sunday's AJC Peachtree Road Race. He says he's just happy to run.

Torpey was born with bilateral club feet that corrective surgeries couldn't help.

In April of 2009, he decided to have his lower part of his right leg amputated.

Six weeks later, he was walking with the help of a prosthetic.

A few weeks after that, he decided to run the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race.

With the help of physical therapists at Atlanta Children's Hospital, he began training to improve his endurance, something that was poor because of his sedentary lifestyle caused by his feet.

In March, he received his first athletic sports foot.

He's been running two miles a day, and riding a bike for 3-4 miles.

With his mother, father, brother and his two physical therapists running along with him, he finished in slightly less than two hours.

Torpey said the new foot, which he described as springy and very flexible, took some getting used to as he navigated the 6.2-mile course, but he was just excited to be out there.

"I feel awesome," said Torpy, a 19-year old Kennesaw State student. "I was in a little bit of pain during the race, but once I crossed the finish line...it's just awesome."

Weather

The runners raved about the weather conditions for Sunday's AJC Peachtree Road Race.

A temperature of 65 degrees at the start for the wheelchairs, who were first off, climbed to 80 degrees by the time the last runners crossed the finish line at the intersection of 10th Street and Charles Allen Drive 2 1/2-three hours later.

"Excellent running weather," Janice Nadeau said.

A native of central Massachusetts, this was Nadeau's second Peachtree. She began participating in the event because friends and family members did.

The starting temperature was just a few degrees from tying the coolest race temperature in the event's 41-year history: 62 in 1986 and ‘89.

The hottest temperature for the start of the race was 80 degrees, which occurred several times.

Medical officials at two tents in Piedmont Park said there were no out-of-the ordinary emergencies for any participants during or after the race.

"There's no substitute for good weather," said Joe Wilson, the race's medical director. "If this were three weeks ago, I'm afraid we would have been a lot busier."

T-shirt

Corbin

The Corbin family, led by 70-year-old patriarch John Corbin, continued its 33-year history with the AJC Peachtree Road Race.

Corbin and 19 relatives participated in the event on Sunday, and then gathered under one of the big trees in Piedmont Park to talk about the race and drink a few beers.

From there, they will head to the Varsity a few blocks away to "eat everything we can," he said. That's also a 33-year tradition.

After a day to recover, Corbin said they will begin planning for next year's race on Monday.

What goes into the plans?

"Beer," he joked.

Those who didn't run loaded about 120 beers into coolers and carried them across the park to provide a barley-and-hops oasis for those who ran.

They also must plan the pre-race spaghetti dinner, which John's wife, Sharon prepares.

The feast includes six quarters of sauce that included five pounds of hamburger.

Corbin, who is retired, said the family doesn't run as a group because "it's every man for himself." He finished in 66:21, 24 minutes off his best time set in 1987.