A Runner's Ramblings: Volume 9; 11th Edition
136.1 miles run in 2014 races
Race: Peachtree Road Race
Place: Atlanta, GA
Miles from home: 2600
Weather: 70s; bright sun
Very few people race the Peachtree Road Race. Tens of
thousands experience it. Count me as one
of the later.
In one of the most evenly egalitarian races out there, 28,
478 men finished the race and 28,693 women crossed the finish line. Over 57,000 people and only 107.5 people in
one direction kept this from being split right down the middle.
While I made my name mostly by running 52 Marathons in 52
weekends in 2006, I have always been a fan of races of all disciplines and
distances. I may not be any good at all at the shorter distances races, but I
do appreciate them. I also appreciate
races that do so much to incorporate the everyman runner. Granted many races do that these days as so
many “adult onset athletes” are lacing up shoes for the first time, but few
races have been reaching out to the running community as a whole for as long as
the Peachtree.
When the Georgia Beef Board asked me if I wished to help the
promote eating lean beef and helping educate people about how healthful beef is
as a protein source for all people, let alone athletes, I jumped at the
chance. As I have been working with
cattle producers and those involved with the promotion of beef for four years
now, it is always my pleasure to help disperse incorrect information about
beef. Most galling to me is those who
love beef and almost begrudgingly admit it as those who are so vocal eating
meat are so loud in spite of the small numbers they have and the facts that
show most of their lamentations are without merit.
When people here that there are 29 cuts of beef that are
leaner than skinless chicken thigh, the shock in their eyes is almost comical.
Furthermore, learning that beef has been on my training table and also in my
fueling during long distance races leaves them in a state that tells me my work
is far from done. But many are not surprised and they joined me and 60,000 of
our closest friends at Lenox Square on the 4th of July.
In what has to be either a record or one of the top five
coolest Independence Days in Atlanta’s history, we were met with a partially
cloudy 64 degree, relatively humidity-free day. Hard to ask for better weather
than that in the Deep South.
One wonders what the original 110 finishers of the first
Peachtree would think about this race 40 years later. Fortunately, many of them are still around
and still running and you can just ask them. Personally, with there being only
so many weekends in one’s life I have never seen the allure of running one
particular race numerous times, but if you find something you like, stick with
it.
No one runs the race necessary to run a fast time. Nor is it
particularly scenic course. The crowds
are nice but the participants probably out number them 10 to one in most
places. What makes the race so iconic and one someone must experience? That’s a
hard question. What is it about certain
races out there like the Boilermaker 15k in Utica, NY or the Bix 7 miler inDavenport, IA that take root in a seemingly odd place or time and grow
exponentially. It is usually not one
factor but a combination of many which makes someone just know that they “have”
to run them. Fortunately, in the 40th
running of the Peachtree I am now on the tens of thousands who have done so.
My time was pedestrian. Hitting 42:32 put me squarely in the
top 1000 of the race. Saying I took it easy would be a miscategorization as I
took it about as hard as I could without having to work very hard, if that
makes any sense. It was my slowest 10k ever, including the few I have done at
the end of Olympic Distance Triathlons. But I wasn’t here to run fast, whatever
that means for me. (Heck, even my PR for this distance would barely crack the
top 100 and that was run on a far more forgiving course.) I was here to take in
the event, see what it was about and grasp why all these people deal with the
potentially logistical nightmare of running a point-to-point race on a national
holiday.
What I found was continuity. People enjoyed running this
race so many times because it is the same. They know that they will run through
Atlanta on the fourth of July and then go about their day. They don’t care if it is hot (usually), humid
(mostly), or hilly (always). They want
to know that as many things change in this world, this race will stay the same.
Well, maybe it will get a little bigger and they a little slower.
But they can accept that.
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