Top seeds Tatyana McFadden and Kurt Fearnley won the women’s and men’s Shepherd Center Wheelchair Division at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race.
This is McFadden’s fifth Peachtree win and her second in a row. She and teammate Susannah Scaroni traded leads throughout the race, but McFadden led in the end with an unofficial time of 24:57.
“We were going back and forth the entire race,” McFadden said. “At the big climbs I didn’t have a lot of grip, and she had better grip than I did so she passed me on the climbs. … Luckily there were a few straightaway areas where I was able to pick up my speed again and just to keep right ahead of her until the finish.”
McFadden, 26, won the Boston Marathon and London Marathon this year, and she claimed the marathon grand slam (Boston, London, Chicago, New York) in 2012 and 2013.
She has a soft spot for the Peachtree, though.
“It’s very vibrant, especially around Peachtree,” she said. “It’s like the marathons. People are really excited to run the Peachtree. Fourth of July, and it’s a great holiday to spend with lots of people.”
Fearnley, 34, raced the Peachtree for the first time since winning in 2007 and 2008, earning his third title with an unofficial time of 20:55. And he had a sinus headache from hotel air conditioning the whole time.
“Yeah, I think I need a glass of concrete to harden up a bit,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s great to be back here, great to get a win. A wet race with a headwind — going to be a hard race for the runners out there. But it’s good to be at the finish line first.”
Fearnley is a two-time Paralympic marathon gold medalist (2004, 2008). He most recently won the Chicago Marathon in 2011, the London Marathon in 2013, and the Sydney Marathon in 2009-13.
But Atlanta is where it all began for Fearnley, whose first race was the 1995 Peachtree.
“(It’s) one of the most historic races for wheelchair racers, as well,” he said. “I grew up, 13 years old when I knew what wheelchair racing was about, and this was one of the biggest in the program.”
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