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Just after the sun rose in Atlanta on an unusually cool July morning, Sara Hall (Asics) and Sam Chelanga (U.S. Army) claimed the USA Track & Field 10-K road running titles at the 51st AJC Peachtree Road race in 31:41 and 28:43, respectively. Both athletes prevailed in late-race battles and each claimed $7,500 in prize money. The race was the third stop of the 2021 USATF Running Circuit.
The women started ahead of the men, and Hall was part of a 15-strong lead pack which quickly formed in the first kilometer. With her were other pre-race favorites, like Steph Bruce and Aliphine Tuliamuk (both of Hoka Northern Arizona Elite) and Gwen Jorgensen of the Nike Bowerman Track Club. But, there were also two less established runners in the lead group, Annie Frisbie and Emily Durgin (adidas).
Durgin, 27, who finished ninth in the 10,000m at the USA Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field in Eugene, Ore., eight days ago, led the race through 5 kilometers in an honest 15:46. Hall remained with her as did Frisbie and Tuliamuk, but Bruce and Diane Nukuri (Asics) began to drift back. Durgin kept pressing, and 90 seconds later only Durgin, Hall and Frisbie remained in contention.
Hall, 38, who prior to today had won 10 national road running titles from the mile to the marathon, wasn’t surprised that it was Durgin who was pushing the pace. Both women live and train in Flagstaff, Ariz., and know each other well.
“She’s been running so strong this year,” Hall told Race Results Weekly by telephone. “At the Trials she had a great one. So, I didn’t really know who would be charging out there.”
At about the 7-kilometer mark Hall and Durgin increased the pace, and Frisbie (who is only 24) had to drop back. The two women spent most of the next three kilometers running side by side waiting for the right moment surge for the finish line. As she did at the Mastercard New York Mini 10-K on June 12, Hall finally showed her cards in the final 400 meters. She pulled away strongly from Durgin to win by eight seconds.
“That’s the first time I’ve kind of gone toe-to-toe with her in a race,” Hall said of Durgin. “She’s got a great future ahead of her. I’m excited to see what she does.” She added: “I’m really proud of her.”
Durgin set a personal best of 31:49, as did Frisbie in third (32:06). Nukuri rallied in the last two kilometers to finish fourth in 32:27, and Bruce (who won this race in 2018) got fifth in 32:35. Tuliamuk, the 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon winner, finished sixth in 32:43.
For Hall, today’s win lifted her spirits after she finished sixth at the Olympic Trials in the 10,000m, likely her final attempt at making an Olympic team on the track. She also felt like she got some payback for a bad race at the 2020 Olympic Trials Marathon, also held in Atlanta, where she was unable to finish.
“You know, I was wanting to kind of get through the hills,” Hall said of the middle portion of today’s race. “Obviously, these Atlanta hills crushed me in the Trials. So, I definitely wanted to have a strong run over those hills.” She continued: “Going into this race I just wanted to have fun out there… This was an opportunity for me to just to out there and enjoy racing.”
For Chelanga, today’s win was his first USA title since he won the 25-K crown in May, 2018, just before he said he was hanging up his racing flats.
“I had announced that I had retired after July 4th of 2018,” Chelanga said in his post-race television interview. “Then when I got back in the Army, people noticed in the physical test that I was really fast, and I ran the 10-miler for the Army team (October, 2019). So I did it. Long story, but now I’m back here.”
(07/05/2021) Views: 439 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...This year will be a limited-capacity, two-day event held in-person and virtually on July 3-4. The in-person event in Atlanta will implement strict COVID-19 safety measures. Atlanta Track Club members receive guaranteed entry and priority choice of preferred race day. Non-members enter by lottery and race day preference will be accommodated as spots remain. The Club invites people to join/renew membership before registering to immediately receive their guarantee.
The AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...What is usually the nation's largest 10-K with over 60,000 finishers, the AJC Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta is planned as a smaller, two-day event for July 3 and 4, Atlanta Track Club (ATC) officials announced today. Safety is the top priority, officials said, not the size of the race.
"This year, the AJC Peachtree Road Race may not be the world's largest 10-K," said ATC executive director Rich Kenah through a media release. "Our top priority is for the Peachtree to be the world's safest 10-K."
That will be no small feat. Large, mass-participation running events like the Peachtree have all but shut down since the pandemic hit the United States in mid-March last year. All of the nation's biggest and most famous road races --the Boston Marathon, Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Bolder Boulder 10-K, and TCS New York City Marathon, etc.-- were cancelled in 2020, or held as virtual events where participants ran on their own close to home.
In 2020 the Peachtree was first postponed from its traditional July 4, date to Thanksgiving Day, but was later cancelled as an in-person event and held virtually, instead.
To make the 2021 race possible, ATC officials will employ a wave start system, limit the size of the field, extend the amount of time runners can be on the course (to increase physical spacing), mandate face coverings both before and after competing, and use self-serve hydration stations to limit person-to-person contact. Runners who don't feel comfortable attending the race will also have the option to participate virtually.
"As planning continues, we will remain in constant communication with our medical team and the city of Atlanta to ensure all in attendance feel confident that their 4th of July celebration was both memorable and responsible," Kenah added.
A COVID-19 task force has been set up by the ATC and is led by Dr. Jonathan Kim, co-medical director of the race. The task force will regularly meet to assess current conditions and adjust event mitigation efforts, accordingly.
Also, the race will have an elite field this year with prize money for USA runners, only. There will also be an elite wheelchair race, one of the Peachtree's great traditions, supported by the Shepherd Center. The race will be broadcast live on Atlanta's NBC affiliate, WXIA-TV, 11Alive.
Registration for the event opens March 15, and will remain open until at least May 1. Runners may indicate whether they prefer to run on the 3rd (Saturday) or the 4th (Sunday).
(01/20/2021) Views: 504 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...With a long and respected legacy of hosting Atlanta's most prestigious endurance events, Atlanta Track Club will be hosting this year’s Running of the AJC Peachtree Road Race virtually for the first time in its 51-year history. Despite not running or walking down Peachtree Road with 60,000 other participants in 2020, race organizers are building a virtual experience that will deliver an unforgettable and authentic Peachtree.
To launch this premier virtual event to participants in all 50 states and 31 countries, Atlanta Track Club looked to their partner haku for fully unique and completely customized technology solutions. haku, the Miami-based technology company, has become the industry leader in bringing the world’s most prestigious endurance events to life, such as the recent 124th Boston Marathon Virtual Experience.
"While we all will miss the sights and sounds of the Peachtree, we are confident haku will help us keep the storied Peachtree tradition going another year," said Rich Kenah, Atlanta Track Club’s Executive Director and Race Director of the AJC Peachtree Road Race. "We saw it through haku's work with the Boston Marathon that they understand the deep-seeded rituals associated with this race and have the ability to build unique and successful virtual events for thousands of runners at a time."
Creating an immersive event app for the Virtual Running of the AJC Peachtree Road Race with haku was an important focus in bringing this event to thousands of participants around the world. The app will have many innovative features to drive a memorable and engaging experience. Participants will be able to track their progress on the course, upload and compare results, engage with their community, and much more. To stay true to tradition, the Club also worked with haku to incorporate audio cues into the app’s race day experience to simulate the sounds that a runner would typically hear during the annual road race and provide encouraging messages from Olympian Meb Keflezighi, 2017 Peachtree Champion and U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Marathon Champion Aliphine Tuliamuk and World Record Holder Daniel Romanchuk.
"Building the app with haku was a collaborative process. There were no rigid set of features that we had to adhere to. The app is fully customized for the AJC Peachtree Road Race participants," said Kenah. "haku has been great about meeting our particular needs and the whole process couldn't have been easier."
Atlanta Track Club and haku are excited to kick off this spectacular event at the end of November, which will deliver a unique Atlanta-centric experience rooted in tradition.
"The passion and dedication that the Atlanta Track Club has shown for this event are immeasurable," said haku Founder and CEO, Carlos Escobar. "The Virtual Running of the AJC Peachtree Road Race will make every participant and spectator feel like they're truly still a part of this 50-year long tradition."
After an extensive search, ATC chose to move forward with haku as its new technology partner in late 2019 after seeing haku’s unique capability of providing truly bespoke technology for its partners. Through their partnership, the organizations are looking forward to introducing new innovative event technology that will drive significant participant engagement, streamline operations, and provide extraordinary experiences for Running City USA.
"We're excited to be able to provide a more user-friendly, clean, and elevated experience for our members and volunteers," said Kenah. "In working with haku, we’re now able to have a better understanding of the people who interact with the Club, which will enable us to deliver more unique and personalized experiences."
The Virtual Running of the AJC Peachtree Road Race will begin on Thanksgiving Day, November 26. Participants can submit their results between 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, November 26 and 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 29.
(11/18/2020) Views: 635 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...The Atlanta Track Club bought time and considered going to great lengths to stage The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race as an in-person race. However, the coronavirus’ continued pervasiveness claimed another landmark sporting event. Initially delayed from its customary July 4 date to Thanksgiving Day in hopes that COVID-19 would have been under better control, the Peachtree now will be run solely in a virtual setting.
“We’ll do so with mixed emotions, but we’ll do it knowing that this is going to be the safest route and also the route that delivers the most authentic Peachtree possible,” track club executive director Rich Kenah told the AJC.
The long-standing Atlanta tradition will no longer be an event featuring 60,000 runners and walkers making their way through the streets, cheered on by a mass of spectators. Instead, participants will design a 6.2-mile course of their choosing with the use of an app and run on Thanksgiving. The track club will create the app that will enable participants to track their times and measure their performance against other finishers.
In May, when Kenah pushed the race from July 4, its home since the race’s inception in 1970, to Nov. 26, he described himself as “cautiously optimistic” that the world’s largest 10-kilometer race could be run down Peachtree Road. However, the spread of COVID-19 has not been curtailed as hoped, particularly in the state of Georgia. Bringing together tens of thousands participants, plus race staff, became less and less of a feasible option. Kenah said that it seemed that the chances of getting a permit from the city of Atlanta to hold the race decreased on a daily basis.
“And, to be honest with you, as we made some educated guesses, we never thought that the Southeast and Georgia specifically would be seeing the level of virus we’re seeing right now,” he said.
Custodian of a tradition cherished by thousands of Georgians, Kenah acknowledged feeling the aggravation shared across the state and region, saying that, “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I feel as if we’re here as a result of a failure of leadership and collective sacrifice. And that frustrates me.”
Kenah added that he was not referring to any leader in specific.
“No, we as a country just need to own this together,” he said. “I’m not pointing fingers, but it disappoints me that, here we are, that our schools are day to day, our sporting events are being taken down one by one, and the rest of the world seems to have made the sacrifices necessary to try to get back to a new normal.”
(08/20/2020) Views: 627 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...Atlanta will celebrate family, fitness and the Founding Fathers this fall as the AJC Peachtree Road Race moves from the Fourth of July to Thanksgiving Day in 2020. The 51st Running of the Peachtree will take place on Thursday, November 26, Atlanta Track Club announced today. It marks the first time in the event's history that it will not be held on July 4.
"As Atlanta and the nation continue to take precautions to slow and stop the spread of COVID-19, we understand that Peachtree participants, volunteers, medical staff and the other first responders who keep them safe need more time to prepare for this year's race," said Rich Kenah, race director of the Peachtree and Atlanta Track Club's executive director. "We are thankful for the opportunity to move forward together with all of Atlanta on Thanksgiving Day in a responsible and safe format."
More than 45,000 people have already registered for this year's AJC Peachtree Road Race. All confirmed participants will remain registered with no further action needed. Current registrants will also have the option to complete the race virtually, move their entry to 2021 at no charge, transfer to a new participant, donate their registration fee to Atlanta Track Club's community initiatives or receive a refund. A full list of options can be found here.
Additionally, Atlanta Track Club plans to reopen registration for the Peachtree on August 31 -September 6 for members of the Club. For non-members it will open September 7 and will close on September 13 or when the event reaches capacity. Kilometer Kids Charity entries will remain open throughout the spring and summer.
The Club also announced efforts to plan and implement new safety measures at this year's race including fewer participants on each start line, longer separation between waves, re-imagining hydration stations and working with MARTA to get people to and from the event. "As it has been for 55 years, health and safety is Atlanta Track Club's top priority. COVID-19 has pushed us to review our best practices and protocols in the areas of event and program safety," Kenah said. "As this situation evolves and changes, we will make decisions based on the advice and information the Club receives from health experts."
Participants who chose to pick up their numbers in person will be able to do so at the Peachtree Health & Fitness Expo on November 23, 24 and 25 at the Georgia World Congress Center. This year's Peachtree Junior for children ages 14 & under will be held on Friday, November 27. Registration is open now.
The AJC Peachtree Road Race will replace the Invesco QQQ Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon, 5K, Mile and Dash, which will be canceled for 2020. The Triple Peach Series presented by Mizuno will instead include the Publix Atlanta Half Marathon on February 28, 2021. Those registered for the Triple Peach will be automatically registered unless a refund is requested
(05/01/2020) Views: 926 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...As conditions in Georgia continue to change daily in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the Atlanta Track Club is planning for the 2020 Peachtree Road Race to happen as scheduled on July 4.
Registration opened March 15 and will continue until March 31, unless the field is not full when registration is set to close, according to Rich Kenah, executive director of Atlanta Track Club and race director of the AJC Peachtree Road Race.
"If we see significant weakness and down the road, we see the opportunity where the sky is brighening a bit, where the outlook is strong, and we see the opportunity to bring people into the conversation who otherwise have been in the past, we'll evaluate that," Kenah told FOX 5.
Kenah said 2020 registration numbers in the first few days were better than all other years past besides 2019, which was the 50th anniversary race. There has been "a little bit of a slowdown" over the last week, but overall he estimated the registration total as of Wednesday morning to be in the "tens of thousands of people."
"About 20 percent of those who enter the lottery during the registration period do so during the last 48 hours, so over those last couple days, we'll have a true indication of the appetite for Atlanta for this year's (Peachtree)," he said.
If the race is postponed, Kenah said participants will be able to transfer their registration to a new date or request a refund.
(03/28/2020) Views: 711 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...Spurred on by the chance to pocket $50,000 course record bonuses, Kenyans Brigid Kosgei and Rhonex Kipruto broke the women’s and men’s course records, respectively, at today’s 50th AJC Peachtree Road Race 10-K in Atlanta. Kosgei, the reigning Chicago and London Marathons champion, clocked 30:22, ten seconds under Lornah Kiplagat’s 2002 record of 30:32. Kipruto, the reigning world U20 10,000m champion, ran 27:01, just three seconds under the late Joseph Kimani’s 1996 standard of 27:04. Both athletes were also awarded $8,000 as race champions.
Kosgei had to fight for her victory right to the line. She was one of four women in contention at the four-mile mark (19:36), all Kenyans: Fancy Chemutai, Agnes Tirop, Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui and Kosgei. The quartet was still together through 5 miles (24:44), and appeared to be too far behind the course record pace to achieve the bonus.
“I think the race for the record is gone on the women’s side but we have an outstanding race,” said commentator Craig Masback on the NBC SportsGold broadcast.
Tirop was the first to be dropped when Kosgei accelerated with 26 minutes and 45 seconds on the race clock. Looking back a few times, she continued to press the pace and appeared to break away to try for the record alone. But less than two minutes later, Kosgei appeared to have blown up. Chemutai, the winner of the B.A.A. 10-K nearly two weeks ago, passed Kosgei. Seconds later, Tirop also passed her.
Gritting her teeth and clearly in pain, Kosgei found some extra energy and rejoined the fight. Using the downhill section of the course before the finish, she upped her pace and as the finish line came into view, and she and Tirop were shoulder to shoulder and running all out. Kosgei angled to the right just before the tape causing Tirop to cut left behind her losing a step. At the line Kosgei had a step on Tirop, but both women were given the same time of 30:22. Chemutai ended up third in 30:32.
Kipruto mostly raced the clock today. He passed through the one-mile mark in 4:21 (the lone pacemaker Brandon Lasater had already dropped out), and by two miles (8:25) only his younger brother, Bravin Kipkogei Kiptoo, was able to stay with him. Kipruto blasted through the 5-K in 13:12, and four miles in 17:19. His 5-mile split was about 21:50, which put him slightly behind course record pace.
But like Kosgei, Kipruto took full advantage of the final downhill section into Piedmont Park. Sprinting full-out to the line with his unique toes-out running style, he got the record.
“Wow, this guy is a sensation,” said Masback.
Kipruto’s brother got second in 27:31 and Kennedy Kimutai, another Kenyan, finished third in 27:56.
The top Americans on the day were Colin Bennie on the men’s side in 29:10 (8th place) and Emily Sisson on the women’s side in 32:03 (7th place).
About 60,000 runners entered the race today which was founded by the Atlanta Track Club in 1970 when only 122 athletes finished. It is now the world’s largest fully-scored 10-K.
(07/04/2019) Views: 1,306 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...His connection to the world’s largest 10K race, which celebrates its 50th running Thursday, goes deep.
Not only has Collins himself run it, but his father, Billy, ran in the first Peachtree in 1970. Billy Collins, who died in 2015 at the age of 64, loved the Peachtree, Geoff Collins said.Beyond that, Collins grew up in a family of runners for whom the Peachtree was an annual event.
Collins, himself a runner growing up who has one marathon to his credit, has memories that may sound familiar to many Atlantans. Members of the Collins family ran the 6.2-mile race in the morning, “and then we would have a huge family barbecue in the Briarcliff area,” he said.
“That was a great tradition for our entire family for a long, long time, centered around the Peachtree Road Race.” Billy Collins was no mere casual jogger, an identity that hardly existed in 1970 before the running boom took hold in the U.S. To be a competitive runner at that time required a different outlook and mindset, according to Jeff Galloway, the winner of that first Peachtree. Galloway went on to compete in the 10,000 meters in the 1972 Olympics and become an esteemed elder in the Atlanta running community.
“Even though the highly competitive, focused runners are still looked on as a little obsessive – or a lot obsessive –the bottom line today is that there are a lot of people who are running and understand the benefits of running,” Galloway said.Back then, there was no such consensus, at least among non-runners. It makes Billy Collins, then 19, stand out all the more.
Collins, in fact, blazed through the first Peachtree, finishing in 40 minutes, seven seconds, good for 19th among the 110 finishers, a group that has earned prized status as pioneers in a cherished event.
(07/02/2019) Views: 1,160 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...Leading the way is Brigid Kosgei, 25, whose 29:54 on a downhill course in Madrid on New Year’s Eve ranks #2 all-time. Kosgei, winner of both the 2018 Bank of America Chicago Marathon and 2019 Virgin Money London Marathon, hasn’t lost a race since last September.
She will have her work cut out for her, however, with Kenyan compatriots Fancy Chemutai and Caroline Chepkoech Kipkirui, a late addition, in the field.
Chemutai, 24, owns the fourth-fastest 10K in history (30:06) and the second-fastest half marathon (1:04:52), just one second off the world record. On June 23, she broke the course record at the B.A.A. 10K, running 30:36. Kosgei, however, won in their most recent matchup, the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in January, by 22 seconds. The 25-year-old Kipkirui, meanwhile, has a 10K personal best of 30:19, the sixth fastest in history.
Edna Kiplagat, the two-time IAAF World Champion at the marathon and 2016 Peachtree Champion, and late addition Ruti Aga of Ethiopia, the 2019 Tokyo Marathon Champion who finished third behind Kosgei and Chemutai in the Houston half, could also contend, along with Kenya’s Agnes Tirop (30:50)
The top American in the field is Emily Sisson (Scottsdale, AZ), who will be racing for the first time since running 2:23:08 in London, the second-fastest American debut at the distance. Sisson, 27, is the 2016 USATF 10 km Champion and in January ran just five seconds off the American record for the half marathon.
The footrace fields will be aided by pacemakers for the first three miles down Peachtree, as the men's field will look to set out at 4:17 per mile pace and the women's field will attempt to average 4:55 per mile in an attempt to eclipse the event records.
(07/01/2019) Views: 1,654 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...Thursday will be the 50th running of the Peachtree Road Race, a 10K that has become an Atlanta Fourth of July tradition. The idea for the race came in 1969 when Tim Singleton, then Georgia State University’s cross-country coach, and a few friends were driving back to Atlanta after running a Fourth of July race in Fort Benning, Ga. They thought, why not create one ourselves?
“July 4, 1970, was that first Peachtree with 110 finishers. We call those our original 110,” said Rich Kenah, executive director of the Atlanta Track Club, and Peachtree’s race director. (Singleton died in 2013.)
Now the event is the largest race in the country, with 54,570 finishers in 2018, and Kenah expects the number to be closer to 60,000 this year. (For comparison, the New York City Marathon had 52,813 finishers last year.) It’s a draw for pros, too, with $200,000 in bonus prize money up for grabs. The race has also doubled as the U.S. 10K women’s championships three times, and the men’s 10K championships four times. It even has its own shoe.
But what about the heat?, I asked Kenah.
“If you live in the southeast, you’re accustomed to hot, humid conditions through the summer,” he said. “It is what in part keeps Peachtree special.”
If you’re thinking of hopping in this year — too late. The race is sold out. You either need to be a member of the Atlanta Track Club, or gain entry through a lottery to make it in for 2020.
(06/30/2019) Views: 1,289 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
more...On July 4, Kipruto will be chasing an even-larger bonus at the AJC Peachtree Road Race —$50,000 in honor of its 50th Running - for breaking the event record of 27:04."I wouldn't put it past him," said Sam Grotewold, director of professional athletes at New York Road Runners, which puts on the Central Park race.
"You could tell (in New York) that you were watching something special even from the first mile or two." And that New York race wouldn't even be Kipruto's fastest 10K of 2018: In September, he won the Birell Grand Prix Prague 10K in 26:46, just two seconds off Komon's world record.
Set by Joseph Kimani in 1996, the Peachtree event record of 27:04 still stands as the fastest 10K ever run in the U.S. and is tied for ninth-fastest in the world. (The net downhill elevation of the Peachtree course means that times here are not eligible for official U.S. or world records.)
Kipruto said recently that his training is going well, declaring: "I am ready to tackle the race."Coached by the famed Brother Colm O'Connell, an Irish missionary at St. Patrick's school in Iten, Kenya, Kipruto finished sixth in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships earlier this year and is coming off a victory at the Stockholm Diamond League meet on May 30 in 26:50.16.
That's not only the fastest 10,000 meters on the track since the 2017 World Championships, but one of the fastest in almost eight years. And he's only 19 years old. "Distance runners run better as they get into their late 20s," said Jeff Galloway, winner of the inaugural Peachtree in 1970.
(06/29/2019) Views: 1,480 ⚡AMPThe AJC Peachtree Road Race, organized by the Atlanta Track Club, is the largest 10K in the world. In its 48th running, the AJC Peachtree Road Race has become a Fourth of July tradition for thousands of people throughout the metro Atlanta area and beyond. Come kick off your Fourth of July festivities with us! If you did not get...
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