Peachtree Road Race vignettes

The design features the Atlanta skyline in blue on top, with the words “AJC Peachtree” and “road race” in white in the middle, and “July 4, 2013” in red on the bottom. The words are subtly shaped together into a peach. He said the process took 3-4 weeks.

“It was so exciting to see it in black,” Dunbar. “It was a nice surprise.”

Dunbar, who grew up in Athens and recently graduated from West Georgia, also ran the race for the first time.

“I’m exhausted,” he said.

10K DIAMOND

Love was in the air Thursday.

Ronak Patel proposed to his girlfriend of eight years, Heena Patel, as they crossed the finish line of the Peachtree Road Race.

Of course, she said yes.

“I didn’t expect it at all,” she said.

He hid the ring in the pocket of his running shorts. As they approached the finish line, he slowed down to fish out the ring.

Heena didn’t realize that Ronak had fallen behind until she crossed the finish line first. She turned around in time to see Ronak, who isn’t a runner, get down on one knee and breathlessly ask her to marry him.

“I feel great, I feel tired,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for better result.”

Ronak said he had thought about proposing during the race since deciding to run it in six months ago. Heena said it may be the last time he runs in it.

They hope to get married next spring.

RUNNING IN STYLE

The threat of rain didn’t seem to diminish the characters and color of the race.

Some runners wore uniforms, such as Lt. Col. Jett Johnson, a Woodstock resident and member of the reserves who wore his Marine Corps uniform. This was his sixth Peachtree, including running in one of the overseas Peachtrees at Camp Leatherneck in Afghanistan in 2011. There were several runners who participated in their military uniforms or carried flags representing one of the branches of the armed services.

Other runners were more whimsical.

Tony and D’Anna Klinger of Suwanee donned swim floaties around their waists for the run. Tony’s was bright blue, and D’Anna’s was light blue and featured a monkey’s head.

“See if we could swim our way down if we had to,” Tony said.

Several women wore either fairy costumes or versions of Wonder Woman’s outfit.

One group of men donned long black beards and ran in camouflage to look like the stars of the TV show “Duck Dynasty.”

The most interesting outfits may have been worn by two men who fashioned long, red or blue balloons all over the backs of their bodies. They looked like patriotic porcupines as they crossed the finish line, although their intent was to look like fireworks.

THE BEAT GOES ON

Bill Thorn’s 44th Peachtree was going fine until the race’s most veteran runner realized he had made a rookie mistake.

“I really went out too hard,” Thorn said from his Tyrone home following the race.

By mile 3, about where the course climbs up toward Piedmont Hospital and the Shepherd Center, Thorn’s legs got heavy, causing him to stop and bend over, which drew unwanted attention.

“They kept saying, ‘Oh, you’re hurt,’” said Thorn, 82. “I kept saying, ‘I told you, I’m not hurt.’”

Some even suggested he get in an ambulance, which Thorn — befitting a man who has outlasted all original Peachtree runners to become the only person to run in all of them — refused. Paced by granddaughter Kenzie Thrasher and a volunteer whom he knew only as Alex, Thorn finished in 1 hour, 33 minutes, 31 seconds, about 13 minutes off his 2012 pace. The track and cross country coach at Landmark Christian School was asked to contemplate Peachtree No. 45.

“It’s already on its way, isn’t it?” he asked.

LAST, NOT LEAST

After missing the past two Peachtrees, Rhoda Ewert wasn’t giving in. Gingerly stepping along 10th Street with pained legs, Ewert and her husband, Dave, were the final finishers of the Peachtree, finishing just before 12:50, more than five hours after the race began.

The Ewerts, both 76, of Sandy Springs, quite personify the race. Dave has now completed 40 in a row. Thursday was Rhoda’s 34th. They plan their summers around the race. She carried a photo of the couple with two of their children from a mid-’70s Peachtree. That history provided them the determination to finish.

Their pace was such that they began seeing clean-up crews at Peachtree Battle Avenue, not even halfway. They were grateful for passersby who cheered them on. When fencing closed off the sidewalk on 10th, Rhoda stepped off the curb and said, “My legs don’t want to bend anymore” in a tone that, somehow, was pleasant.

The couple, married 54 years, took a photo by the finish line as proof of the completion of their race. How did she feel?

“Good,” Rhoda Ewert said. “Very good.”

MISCELLANEOUS SCENES

The meadow at Piedmont Park may not have run 10 kilometers Thursday, but it looked as rough as some of the runners who did. Prerace rain softened up the turf in the park, and the foot traffic of nearly 60,000 Peachtree participants plus volunteers did the rest. Parts of the meadow, particularly the route taken off of 10th Street into the park toward the T-shirts, turned into a muddy mess that sank and squished as finishers trod across it. It was unclear how much long-term damage was done Thursday, but the lawn could use recuperating time to dry, firm and heal. …

Among the finishers — Falcons and former Georgia Tech wide receiver Kevin Cone, who ran (or, judging by his 87-minute time, likely walked) with his father Ronny, himself a former Yellow Jacket. The younger Cone tweeted a photo of the finisher’s T-shirt with the message, “This is why you do it!! #TheShirt.” … It may have been unintentional, but it made for a memorable image regardless. In the lead pack of the men’s open race, the Nike-sponsored runners all wore light blue tanks, while those under contract with Adidas wore yellow. Together, they formed a vanguard bearing the colors of the Boston Athletic Association. Before the race the Atlanta Track Club encouraged runners to wear yellow and blue in a show of support and solidarity with the victims of the Boston Marathon. …

Thursday’s Peachtree was the third since the field expanded to 60,000. There were 55,076 finishers in 2011, 58,036 in 2012 and 55,714 this year.