My last running of the Peachtree 10K Road Race was in near-record heat and humidity for that event. At the start there was a nice breeze and enough shade to make things pretty comfortable for the first 3 miles. Then as the temp rose, the sun came up to take away the shade and the major hills appeared on the course, it got uncomfortable in a hurry. The last quarter-mile of the race is on 10th street, and when we turned onto it we were looking right at the sun, and feeling the sweat and body heat from thousands of other runners bunched up at the finish line. This picture was taken about a hundred yards from the finish.
On the course we saw Abe Lincoln, Batman, all sorts of Uncle Sam costumes, a firefighter in full gear (included air tank), a lot of women (and a few men) in tutus, and several people wearing cool Waffle House race-sponsor shirts. You can't make this shit up.
As is tradition, we got our t-shirts (worse than usual), headed to the car for the "Coldest beers ever" and met up with Terry.
So ended my history with the Peachtree, finishing the race (term used loosely for me) 16 times since I moved to ATL in 1994. Jeff has finished 26 times, and this will be his last as well.
The Peachtree got to the top of my Cancer Revenge list in 2009 as I was limited to being a spectator that year following my treatments. So, in 2010 I trained, entered, and had an emotional run with a broad grin on my face the whole time. It became one of many milestones in my life as a cancer survivor. This will be my last because a MRI in 2015 showed that both of my knees are early candidates for replacement, so running is not a good way for me to exercise.
So, how did I train for this year's Peachtree without risking further damage to my knees? Easy--I practiced "minimalist training" by walking some, running very little, and accepting that I would walk a lot of the course and ingest several doses of Ibuprofin along the way. Well, we actually ran more than 5 miles of the course, walking only up the two major hills. Even though we did a lot better than we expected (and trained for), we both have accepted this as our final Peachtree, and I have retired the Livestrong shirt I have worn since the 2010 race.
The Peachtree Road Race is for a very few elite, world-class runners, and the nearly 60,000 others who run it for various reasons. I started running it for the July 4th celebration, the spectacle of it, the camaradarie with my running partners, and of course the "T-shirts and Cold Beers." Since 2010 I've run it as one way to show that cancer and its treatments can be survived, and that there is a lot of life to be lived after the Prairie Dogs have attacked.
Mike
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