On Saturday morning, about 2,000 runners filed onto the the cleared fifth runway at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to relaunch the Mayor’s 5K on the 5th Runway.
The 6-year-old event, which was canceled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, is “one of the flattest — and fastest — courses in metro Atlanta,” according to the airport. And as an Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race qualifying event, it was also a chance for runners to score a good time, which allows them to be placed in an earlier starting wave for the Peachtree and push for a personal best.
The $1.2 billion, 9,000-foot runway sits isolated on the far south side of the airfield, offering runners some distance from the jets that will continue to take off and land on the other runways. The race route extended down the runway and a taxiway.
The race began at 6:30 a.m., and all participants had to be off the runway by 7:30 a.m. for airport workers to do a sweep of the area and prepare for flights scheduled to start landing again at around 8 a.m.
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