The 37^th Peachtree Road Race 2006
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The 36^th Peachtree Road Race 2005
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Chris and Brian at the start

It's downhill to the finish line

Piedmont Park
 

History of the Peachtree Road Race

The Peachtree Road Race is the world's largest 10K road race and arguably the best and most famous. This year it will again host the PRRO Race of Champions, the culminating event in the 5-race Professional Road Running Organization's circuit. The elite field will be drawn from the top point-earners in the circuit. This will add even more sparkle to an already glittering event.

Peachtree's inauguration in 1970 held few indications of such future glory. The idea for a Fourth of July race down the city's main thoroughfare germinated the year before when a carload of Atlanta Track Club members went to Fort Benning for its modest Independence Day run. On the way home, someone suggested Atlanta should have its own Fourth of July event; another added it could go down the main street given the light holiday traffic. Thus is was that approximately 110 runners gathered together at the old Sears parking lot at the corner of Peachtree Road and Roswell Road and, at 9:30 a.m. on July 4, 1970, headed downtown towards Central City Park in the first Peachtree Road Race.

The race was but one of a series of small, local races put on by the Atlanta Track Club. The club had begun in 1964 when a group of post-collegiate runners joined together with some metro area coaches to support track and field and road running at the local level. The 1960s were the pre-dawn of the running boom; those who ran for exercise were viewed as amusing eccentrics. Road races were small and infrequent, with runners driving long distances to take part in these low-key competitions. To help fill this void, the ATC began a modest series of races in the late 1960s, administered informally and attended by a few stalwarts. Peachtree would become one of this series.

The first Peachtree differed somewhat from its companion races, even in the beginning, for it attracted a sponsor, Carling Brewery. That modest support allowed the race to afford trophies, a luxury not easily funded through the $2 entry fee. Nor did the budget include T-shirts though it compassed the 15-cent bus fare given to each finisher to return him back to Peachtree to his car at Sears.

Those who ran the inaugural event recall its jovial lack of pretension. Founder and race director, Tim Singleton, put the event on with a handful of volunteers. He, himself, set up registration and started the event. He then jumped in his car, got to the finish well before the lead runners, and oversaw the finish and awards.

During the early years, the course went from Sears in Buckhead to Downtown Atlanta. The runners ran down Peachtree's far right lane, kept close to the gutter by vigilant police. At Pershing Point, the course veered onto West Peachtree, rejoining Peachtree near Davison's (Macy's). The race ended at Central City Park. There was no water on the course as track and field rules at the time discouraged such aid for distances 10K or shorter. Spectators consisted of a few surprised pedestrians walking their dogs. Though modest, the race nonetheless attracted the local elite: it was won by Jeff Galloway, to be an Olympian two years later, and Gayle Barron, whose career would be capped with a 1978 win of the Boston Marathon.

Despite the heat and lack of pomp and frill, the race caught the imagination of the town's running community, and of those in the neighboring states. The 1971 Peachtree doubled in size to 198, a growth which took organizers by surprise. That year they used the Carling money to buy T-shirts, but had not ordered enough. They decided to give the shirts to the finishers until they ran out. Those who missed the cut vowed to return the following year and get one. Many did return, though in some cases their luck had not improved. Organizers this time had ordered enough for 250, with the exact design of the year prior, but this time 330 showed up. Close to a hundred left disappointed, promising to return and finally earn the shirt.

By 1973, earning the Peachtree shirt had become a goal of local runners. Its appearance belied its importance. The white shirt was undated, and was merely reprinted each year with little or no change, not even a date; those who had succeeded in earning all three shirts now owned three identical bits of cloth. As the importance of the shirt grew, so did the number of people who ran. Running as a recreational activity began to boom in the early 1970s following Frank Shorter's win in the 1972 Olympic Marathon. The name of this new sports hero, coupled with the growing popularity of Dr. Kenneth Cooper's book on the benefits of aerobic exercise, had thousands buying Nike waffle trainers and hitting the streets. Running was no longer just the activity of the scrawny eccentric.

The 1974 event doubled again, to 765 finishers. And, once again, organizers ran out of shirts. In 1975 it fared little better, when over a thousand runners finished. The 1974 and 1975 now carried the name Tuborg rather than Carling but were otherwise unaltered.

A major shift took place in 1976, the first major change in the history of the race. Carling, with lessening ties to Atlanta, dropped its sponsorship. The title sponsorship was taken by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, largely at the instigation of Jim Kennedy, a runner and member of the Cox organization's inner circle, the newspaper's owner. Affiliation with the newspaper brought added coverage and corresponding popularity. The race organizers, for their part, began inviting the nation's elite road racers to participate. The field swelled to 2,300; Olympian Don Kardong won. Peachtree was swiftly becoming among the best known in the United States. But the shirt still looked the same, with the newspaper's logo replacing that of Tuborg. There was still no date.

The large fields were straining race organization. The 6,500 who entered the 1977 race overwhelmed Central City Park. In 1978, the race course was modified. The Start moved north to Lenox Square and the finish line was put in front of the Bath House in Piedmont Park. Runners followed the original course onto West Peachtree. They turned left at 12th Street and thus entered the Park towards the Bath House. The 1977 shirt also carried a new look: the familiar peach made its first appearance and as did the date. By 1979, the field had reached over 20,000. The course by now had again been slightly altered, with runners entering the Park at 14th Street. That year, as well, Bob Varsha was hired as the first paid director.

In 1980, race entries were limited at 25,000. The limit was set because, at five and half miles, the course narrowed to two lanes where it entered the Park from 14th Street. Organizers felt congestion there was too thick to allow more. Thus race numbers remained until 1990. Though the race limit remained steady, however, interest in the event continued to flourish and the race closed earlier and earlier. In 1989, the 25,000 was reached in just 9 days. Those not making the cut bellowed in anger. Race organizers took heed. The Start was redesigned. Time groups of 5,000 each were sent from the start at three minute intervals, allowing the crowd to stretch out sufficiently to ease comfortably through the 14th Street gate. In 1990, 40,000 ran, with a start lasting 30 minutes. The race took two weeks to close.

The 1980's saw other changes as well. In the early part of the decade, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution dropped its sponsorship. It returned in 1985. And later in the decade, in an effort to better meet the needs of children, for whom the Peachtree was both too long and too crowded, the Atlanta Track Club began Peachtree Jr., a fun run 3K for children 7-12. Run the first Saturday in June, it attracts its limit of 2,500.

The decade also saw the emergence of Peachtree's Wheelchair Division. Presently among the most beloved aspects of the race, the Division took formal shape in 1982. Today, more than 100 athletes take part, in what has become one of the world's finest wheelchair events, attracting top international competition. Sponsored by the Shepherd Spinal Center since its inception, the event has produced several world record-breaking performances with top contenders covering the 6.2 mile course in under 20 minutes (the course record for those on foot is 27:04).

During this period, Peachtree also found its niche in Atlanta's effort to win the bid to host the 1996 Olympics. Bid organizers invited International Olympic Committee (IOC) organizers to observe the race, and Peachtree's fourth mile (I-85 overpass to Colony Square) was dubbed the Olympic Mile, complete with a salutation banner and Olympic theme music over the sound system. In 1990, Peachtree hosted a breakfast for visiting IOC members along the Mile. In honor of Atlanta's winning bid, banner and theme music continue there.

Continued as well has been the race's popularity. In 1992, the race expanded to 45,000. That year, it closed in 9 days. In 1993, it closed in 6 days, though numbers had expanded to 45,000. And for its Silver Anniversary, it attracted 60,000 entries the first weekend it opened. The first 40,000 were accepted, the final 10,000 taken from a lottery of those entries postmarked in March (the race opened March 20). Over 10,000 were rejected.

As anticipated, the 1996 running of the Peachtree was memorable. July 4th was but two days before the Olympic Village opened to welcome the 10,000 athletes coming to town to participate in the Centennial Olympic Games. Thirty two Olympians made Peachtree's elite field the most illustrious ever; it was little surprise that both men's and women's course records fell, the men's being broken by Kenya's Joseph Kimani in a world best 10K time of 27:04.

The post-Olympic era has little dampened Peachtree's popularity. When the race opens the third Sunday in March each year, over 60,000 runners routinely vie to enter. In 1998, 55,000 runners were admitted, up from 50,000 in 1997. Among other changes that year as well, all runners who qualified for the early time groups by running a certified 10K in 54:59 minutes or under were timed, their names listed in the following morning's Atlanta Journal Constitution.

In 1999, Peachtree faced new challenges. Sewer construction in Piedmont Park required the final mile of the course be rerouted; for the first time since 1978 the race finished outside the Park. The new finish, on 10th Street at Charles Allen Drive, is broader and downhill, and has been greeted by runners with enthusiasm. Thus, the change is likely permanent. All finish area activity remains in Piedmont Park. As is so often the case, Peachtree continues to mix new elements into its traditions.