55,000 people are expected to turn out for this year's Peachtree Road Race. 30% will be first-timers. (photo courtesy Russell Reno)
For many who participate, it’s a tradition they wouldn’t think of skipping. And for others, it may become a new personal tradition.
Race organizers say more than 30 percent of this year’s field will be first-timers.
With 55,000 participants, the Peachtree has been known as the largest 10-kilometer road race in the world since the late 1970’s.
But that honor is getting some competition from the annual Memorial Day race in Boulder, Co. -- now only a few
thousand shy of 55,000.
Peachtree race director Tracey Russell says it makes for a fun rivalry with the Colorado race:
RUSSELL: “Certainly something fun we like to embrace and Atlanta likes to embrace being the world’s largest 10-K. Can’t over-emphasize how important it is from a safety standpoint to make sure if we were to grow and add additional folks, is that we can handle the capacity…knowing that we do this on a warm morning on July 4th.”
Russell says along with casual runners and walkers, Sunday’s race will have one of its deepest invited runner fields ever.
Contributors: Rickey Bevington
