Nancy McCreary stood at the corner of Peachtree and Piedmont roads, a light breeze flapping her dark dress. Shielded by her black umbrella on a morning muted by steady rain and overcast skies, she buoyed participants in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race with her ringing encouragement.
“Go, Gators!” she shouted at a female runner in a Florida visor.
“You can do it!” she hollered to a woman dressed as a hot dog.
The 46th running of the Peachtree was among the race’s wettest in its history, but the soaking rain, along with a 40-minute lightning delay for slightly less than half the field, failed to dampen Atlanta’s Independence Day ritual for most participants. Certainly not McCreary, a technical writer at the CDC, who had a reason to be excused from repeatedly shouting “Whooo!” to total strangers (as well as friends, colleagues and former classmates), which she has faithfully done the past several years.
“I had just straightened my hair, (but) I’m like, You know what?” McCreary said. “These people are worth it.”
Rain fell nearly constantly, sometimes heavily. T-shirts soaked and hair slickened by the rain, runners dodged puddles and made their 6.2-mile way down Peachtree in squishy running shoes. They ran and walked under rain jackets, ponchos, trash bags, shopping bags, plastic plaid tablecloths and, in at least two instances, shower caps.
“Hashtag ‘at least it’s not hot’?” one runner suggested to her family on their way to the starting line.
As the Very Rev. Sam Candler sprinkled liquid blessings on runners and walkers in front of St. Philip’s Cathedral near Mile 2, which he has done since 1999, he recognized he was working in concert.
“God is pouring showers of blessings all over y’all today,” Candler called out cheerfully as runners darted toward him to receive their holy spritzing.
Undaunted, Cammy Miley of Marietta labored her way down Peachtree, 35 weeks pregnant, even passing Piedmont Hospital, where she’ll deliver her first child.
“Baby’s first Peachtree,” said Miley, whose husband, Jared, ran his race and then reversed course to accompany his wife for about the final four miles.
Unwilling to yield, Amanda Gosart hobbled 10 kilometers on crutches, just two days removed from getting out of a boot to mend a stress fracture in her heel. Gosart, of McDonough, promised her daughter, MacKenna, that they would complete the Triple Peach — a three-race series organized by the Atlanta Track Club — together, and Gosart sought to live up to her word.
At Piedmont Park after finishing, she confessed that her arms hurt — “a lot,” she said — and that she considered quitting 5 1/2 miles into the race. The rain made the hills slick and her hands had blistered from gripping the rain-soaked crutch handles.
However, she said, “quitting’s not part of my vocabulary.”
She finished in 2 hours, 59 minutes, barely ahead of her three-hour goal.
Determined, Latrice Pace finished her eighth Peachtree in 1:28, 12 minutes ahead of her time from 2014. Two years ago, Pace weighed 270 pounds and now is down to 160. She ran nearly the whole way, an accomplishment that caused her to get emotional as she recounted her race.
“I usually can’t really last, but I was able to make it this year,” she said. “I kept telling myself, ‘Just keep going. Just keep going.’”
Placid, Madeline Devoux reached the finish line, carried in a backpack by her dad Lucien. The Brookhaven resident toted his 11-month-old daughter on his back, stopping to wait out heavier rains at a CVS and a Burger King. At the former, he bought Madeline a change of clothes to try to stay dry.
“She was fantastic,” said Devoux, originally from South Africa. “She was complaining a lot less than some of the adults. I didn’t hear a single peep from her.”
More than 55,000 of the 60,000 registrants participated Saturday, according to a “very unofficial” report from race director Rich Kenah. Since the field was expanded to 60,000 in 2011, participant numbers have reached from 55,076 to 58,043.
Kenah was delighted with the work of the track club’s staff, the race’s 3,400 volunteers and Atlanta’s police and fire departments. Together, they handled the curveball of the rain and a lightning strike less than a half-mile from the start area at around 8:20 a.m. that necessitated roughly 25,000 participants taking shelter in Phipps Plaza and Lenox Square and their adjoining parking decks for about 40 minutes before their starts.
“This is what people do on the Fourth of July in Atlanta,” Kenah said. “Rain’s not going to stop us.”
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