They ran Thursday’s The Atlanta Journal Constitution Peachtree Road Race for Boston.
They ran to defy Mother Nature, who was supposed to bring a monsoon to our annual celebration of patriotism and exhaustion.
On Thursday, more than 55,700 competitors — not many of the 60,000 who registered stayed home because of the expected rain or the fear of the terrorist events that defiled the Boston Marathon — ran a mostly peaceful Peachtree under the watchful eyes of hundreds of law-enforcement officials, dozens of security cameras and a few off-the-mark weathermen.
“This was a great day for Atlanta,” Mayor Kasim Reed said. “This is a huge part of the culture of Atlanta and the most important thing we could have done to show respect for the folks in Boston was to carry on and have our race.”
In the end the rain mostly stopped just as the wheelchair races started at 6:45 a.m. It held off until most of the field crossed the finish line, an unexpected gift for the Atlanta Track Club, which was told as late as 2:30 a.m. to expect rain throughout the day. Though the humidity was a frequent topic of conversation, few complained because the temperatures stayed in the low 70s throughout the race. The Peachtree’s medical team said they treated fewer heat-related illnesses than in any previous year.
Everything turned out so well — an APD spokesman called the race as a “yawner” — that the winners almost were an afterthought. Almost.
Mosinet Geremew of Ethiopia won the men’s race, finishing the 6.2-mile course in 28 minutes, 7 seconds. He defeated fellow Ethiopian Belete Assefa by two seconds and Kenyan Peter Kirui by four seconds.
Kenya’s Lineth Chepkurui won the women’s division in 32:09, outkicking fellow Kenyan Sharon Cherop by a second to win her third Peachtree. Chepkurui also won in 2009 and ’10. Ethiopia’s Yebgrual Melese finished third (32:16).
“It was so tough,” Chepkurui said of the finish.
The conditions combined to make for slightly smaller crowds along the streets and slightly slower times in the races.
Geremew finished well behind the best time in Peachtree history of 27:04, set by Kenya’s Joseph Kimani in 1996. The best women’s time is 30:32, set by Kenya’s Lornah Kiplagat in 2002.
Josh Cassidy of Toronto won the men’s wheelchair division. He finished the 6.2-mile course in 21:26. He also won in 2010. Manuela Schar won the women’s wheelchair division in 24:42. This was her first Peachtree win.
But the professional fields were made tougher because the stakes were higher. For the first time, the Peachtree also was the U.S. 10-kilometer championship race for the men and the women. More than 80 competitors entered, the largest professional field in Peachtree history.
Matt Tegenkamp was the top U.S. men’s finisher (28:25, in sixth), and Janet Cherobon-Bawcom (32:45, in eighth) was the top U.S. women’s finisher. Cherobon-Bawcom, who has a home in Rome, said she began to notice the increased police presence along the sides of the route at the third mile. She said she could feel a sense of nervousness at the beginning of the race because of what happened in Boston, but she was determined to run.
“It makes you stronger, it makes you want to run to show them that you cannot break us,” she said.
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