The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race is back, and we’ll provide full coverage of this weekend.
For many runners and spectators, the return of the in-person event also signals a chance to return to more normalcy after the coronavirus pandemic, which delayed and then made last year’s race virtual only.
We’ll be checking with participants and spectators on what this year’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race means to them.
From the start in Buckhead past the infamous Cardiac Hill to the finish line at Piedmont Park, you’ll find everything you need to know about the world’s biggest 10K this holiday weekend.
Here are our live updates from Saturday morning.
11:15 a.m.: One down and one to go. Thousands of racers are expected to take part in Sunday’s installment of this year’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race, including the elite and wheelers categories.
For our last entry in today’s live coverage, one more comment from spectators enjoying today’s return of in-person running.
Friends Blair Reynolds, 36, of Smyrna and Carla, 35, and Mitchell Finch, 34, of Vinings and their dog Bruce sat at the top of Cardiac Hill, drinking mimosas in lawn chairs. The top of the challenging segment near the midpoint of the race is near the corner of Peachtree Road and Collier Road.
Reynolds and Carla Finch have run and watched the race before, but today was Mitchell Finch’s first race.
“We had a first-timer, so we told him how great it was before and that he had to come and check it out,” Reynolds said.
”It feels like Atlanta is back to normal, and it’s exciting,” Carla Finch said.
And as for Bruce? He got to meet “a nice lady friend,” according to Carla Finch.
- Lizzie Kane
10:17 a.m.: More than two-and-a-half hours after the first runner crossed the finish line, lone runners and small groups of families and friends continued reaching the end of the 10K road race under the gentle wind and summer heat.
Grabbing their commemorative T-shirts, they headed into Piedmont Park before finding the closest MARTA station to head back home while others sat down on the lawn catching their breaths and chugging down water.
A few who have patiently waited in the now nearly empty park continue to search for familiar faces — with many hugs capping the AJC Peachtree Road Race’s return.
- Caroline Silva
10:10 a.m. - A time for motivation: Mark and Megan Vasquez, both 43, sported patriotic outfits for their run.
“Every year we run it and every year we dress up in red, white and blue,” Megan said. “I didn’t train, I had COVID … so it was a long run back from that,” Megan said.
They said they are running in honor of “just the United States, all of us making it through COVID.”
Emmanuel Green, 17, an incoming freshmen at Oglethorpe University, also welcomed the race’s return.
“I was actually planning to run last year,” Green said, referring to the 2020 version that wound up being a virtual event. “I was planning to do my first marathon, so having the Peachtree race this year was an opportunity for me to get my feet wet.”
He added, “While I know the pandemic is a negative and sensitive topic, I would say that being in the pandemic pretty much showed me that I had the motivation to run … if you want this you have to go out and train by yourself.”
- Caroline Silva
9:52 a.m. - ‘But it was still a good race’: Lorena Castillo, 37, and Omar Ceron, 36, of Brookhaven are running the race together for the second time, but both have run the race multiple times.
Due to the race being split and some miscommunication with the usual group they run together with, they are running alone this year.
“It was different, I didn’t like that it was split, but I understand why,” Ceron said. “It was very very empty and the energy was lacking.”
”Usually they’re giving us beer and shouting and there’s music, but this time it was more quiet, but it was still a good race,” Castillo said, emphasizing the pair will still return next year.
“(The race) was hard last year because it was virtual and I had to give up my number because I had COVID so my lungs weren’t ready, so this is my first time running 6 miles since,” Castillo said.
- Caroline Silva
9:45 a.m. - Still cautious: Wendy and George Harris, who live in Atlanta’s West End, have volunteered at the race for more than 15 years.
“We love Atlanta, we love cheering people on and making people feel good,” Wendy said.
While Wendy is fully vaccinated and said she wasn’t worried about coming out today, she still chose to wear a mask as an extra precaution.
”We’re still in the pandemic and we’ve got this new variant out as well, so I’m still careful,” Wendy said.
- Anjali Huynh
9:30 a.m. - Family time: Daughter and father Olivia Vernon, 24, and Mike Vernon, 70, of McDonough have been running the race together for years. Mike himself has been running for 39 years now.
Olivia, who has worked at a hospital throughout the entire pandemic, stated that the race is a “step in the right direction.”
She said, “It’s kind of crazy thinking about how much (the race has changed) because there was a lot less people running today.”
- Caroline Silva
Nayara Castro teared up as she cheered on her husband, Rafael.
Their 1-year-old daughter, Malu, carried a homemade “Go Daddy” sign.
“I’m so excited and so emotional,” Nayara Castro said.
- Jeremy Redmon
9:20 a.m. - Race is winding down: Past the finish line, runners are constantly looking behind themselves trying to locate those they ran with.
Piedmont Park is becoming crowded as runners head into the streets from all direction as volunteers kindly ask them to head home to avoid as much contact as possible due to pandemic precautions.
Unlike past years, spectators were not allowed into the park. However, there are still about 13,000 runners expected to pass through the park for today’s race, and even more are expected Sunday.
- Caroline Silva
Matthew Hutcherson, 66, of Riverdale, playfully teased the runners as they neared the finish line Saturday.
“You are going to slow! Speed it up!” he announced through a megaphone.
- Jeremy Redmon
9:15 a.m. - A hot time: Lindsay Cain, who is 31 and lives in the neighborhood, has run the race in the past, but prefers to be a cheering fan for friends and strangers.
Today, she stood by the end of Cardiac Hill, holding a sign saying, “Hey! You look hot.”
One runner yelled, “Is that temperature?” referencing her poster.
She replied, “You take it however you want!”
(Of course, it could also reflect the weather with temperatures around 70 degrees by 9 a.m. for those still chugging along the race route.)
“My friends do it every year,” she said. “It is nice to see everybody back and the energy is still there.” She’s looking forward to Sunday when even more racers are expected.
- Lizzie Kane
Here are this morning’s earlier updates:
7:02 a.m. - The first runners cross the finish line: After about 31 minutes into the race, the first runner crosses the finish line.
With the sun slowly coming over the trees of Piedmont Park, a few people were sitting just outside the barricades waiting patiently.
This year’s pandemic precautions meant that spectators were not allowed inside the park.
- Caroline Silva
7:20 a.m. - Feathered friends: The Hawks Brand Ambassadors, or “The Flight Crew,” are at Cardiac Hill with a DJ, cheerleaders and an MC, encouraging the runners heading up the grueling hill while also proclaiming “Let’s go, Hawks!”
Some fans are joining in their cheer. “Game six, as a reminder, is tonight. If you believe we need to support tonight, let’s go ahead and finish this race,” said the MC.
The Hawks face the Milwaukee Bucks at 8:30 tonight in Game 6 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference finals at State Farm Arena.
- Lizzie Kane
7:30 a.m. - The runners are ready: Participants in this year’s AJC Peachtree Road Race are excited about the return of the in-person event after last year’s race was delayed for months and then held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Greg Lewis, Brookhaven: “All I want to do is finish while the streets are still closed.”
Taylor Perkins, 30, of Brookhaven wore a Spider-Man costume to the race: “It’s just so great to see everybody really coming together and just getting back to Atlanta traditions.”
Kim Dorsey of Smyrna: “I’m so geeked up right now. I’m so excited. I already posted on Facebook to tell people I’m here.”
- Ken Sugiura, Jeremy Redmon
7:55 a.m. - The winner is ... Aberto Mena, 22. He was the first runner to cross the finish line this morning.
“I haven’t seen big races going on, and this was the first one (with a) big crowd, everyone coming out, so I said, ‘You know what, let’s do it,’ “ Mena said after the race. “It was a great experience seeing everyone out here.
“It’s very inspiring to me especially after a whole year of training by myself.”
- Caroline Silva
8 a.m. - Time together: Brad and Heather Sobel of Smyrna ran together and sported their patriotism in their red, white and blue outfits.
Brad has run the race 15 times, and Heather has run about six times.
During the pandemic, “we couldn’t be with family, couldn’t be with people, isolated ourselves as much as possible,” Brad said. He said the AJC Peachtree Road Race is is the first big event they have been to been to, other than last month’s Braves Country 5K & Dash.
- Caroline Silva
8:15 a.m. - Counting our blessings. A road race staple has returned to Peachtree Road this year.
Affectionately dubbed “the blessing priest,” the Rev. Sam Candler of the Cathedral of St. Philip blessed runners with holy water, shouting “bless you” on repeat as runners flashed smiles or shouted their thanks. As Candler tossed water indiscriminately on everyone in his vicinity, he lived up to what he says has been his pandemic principle: no judgment.
Like everyone, the church has gone through a rough year, Candler said. The cathedral switched to virtual services, which Candler said was still difficult given that the church is “all about face to face community.”
“I like traditions, I enjoy traditions, and the good ones, we’ve got to lift up,” said Candler, who started this particular tradition over two decades ago. “We’ve got to lift up traditions that bring the world together, let us see each other face to face in a hopeful way.”
Runners seem to agree, with most swerving out of their way to the right side of the road to get blessed with water.
The Rev. Juan Sandoval, who ran in the 2019 race and helped bless runners as church deacon this year, said the race being in person once again marked a significant moment for the participants and church alike, adding that he had seen “a lot of familiar faces.”
”It was awful during that year for everybody, but we’re getting back to some degree of normalcy,” he said. “This was a lot of fun.”
- Anjali Huynh
8:40 a.m. - Spectators have spectacular time. Darrin Ellis-May and Saye Sutton have been “joined at the hip” for 17 years, 64-year-old Ellis-May said. But because of the pandemic, the two went a prolonged time without seeing one another, turning to Zoom calls to stay close.
”The runners love observers as much as we love watching them, so it’s just a fun way to start off the Fourth,” Sutton, who is 70 years old, said.
While Sutton has come out to watch for over 20 years, this is Ellis-May’s first race — which she attended in part to see Sutton’s son run. Ellis-May became emotional as she described how she was able to hug Sutton’s son for the first time in 18 months during the race.
”It’s brought people together in ways they never expected to be brought together and it’s separated them in ways they never expected,” Ellis-May said of the pandemic. “It’s been a way for people to evolve like they never would have previously.”
- Anjali Huynh
8:45 a.m. - Furry friends cheer on runners. William Rupprecht, who lives right up the street from the grueling segment of the race known as Cardiac Hill, has been coming to the AJC Peachtree Road Race for 25 years, along with his three different generations of Welsh corgis.
This year, he was joined by his 10-month-old corgi for Madeline’s first race.
Rupprecht noted the hard work of the runners: “I think a lot of people have been doing this for long time and look forward to it, something they work for.”
- Lizzie Kane
8:55 a.m. - Festive looks: Kristiana Perryman, 24, and Bradford Lorenz, 24, University of Georgia law school students, dressed the part Saturday.
“It’s so obvious, it’s too good to pass up,” Lorenz said about their costumes. “The best part of the race was hearing people along the side figure it out. … We did have one guy literally run back after us and he was like, ‘I just want you guys to know, I officially got it.’ ”
Here’s a photo of Perryman and Lorenz to see if you get their theme:
- Jeremy Redmon
