With severe weather rumbling through metro Atlanta, this year’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race ended earlier than usual.
About a half-hour before the final 500 participants were supposed to complete the race, the Atlanta Track Club announced that “all event activities in the start and finish, as well as the course, have shut down.” In the 10:35 a.m. announcement, the 10K’s organizer also said there would be no more official finish times after that point.
Today’s race came under a “black flag” alert, meaning the race had to be canceled.
“We have an emergency alert system,” said Jay Holder, vice president of marking and communications for the Atlanta Track Club. “This morning, we started under a yellow flag which is pretty typical for the Peachtree. The conditions are hot and humid. Take caution, stay hydrated.
“Red, we typically go to red at some point during the day because it just gets so warm and it gets borderline dangerous. We just tell people to slow down, walk again, take a glass of water, remind them of our medical operations at the finish line.”
It was the first time since the alert system was put in place about a decade ago that the black flag warning was used.
“The reason that the race was canceled today is because we had a lightning strike within eight miles of the course. We cannot continue once we have a lightning strike for at least 30 minutes. We have to hold for 30 minutes. And we were within 30 minutes of our agreed upon course closing time with the city,” Holder said. .
“So there was no way we could reopen in time for people to finish.”
How people can get their commemorative T-shirts if they didn’t get one at the finish line?
Holder said they’ll be held for participants to pick them up at the track office.
While the severe weather posed a safety risk, no medical emergencies were reported on the course this year. About 50,000 participants took part in this year’s 54th running of the race.
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