A WELCOME RETURN
TO RACES
Safety remains top of mind and prompts an array of novel approaches. / By Daniel P. Smith
L
ast year at about this time, Rich Kenah wasn’t feeling too swell. The executive director of the Atlanta Track Club (ATC), Kenah “felt horrible” that the ATC’s signature event and the world’s largest 10K, the Peachtree Road Race, would not be celebrating its annual Independence Day running through Atlanta’s streets due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It was a tough pill to swallow,” Kenah says of the ATC’s big event going virtual in 2020. And it was not a pill Kenah wished to ingest again. Over the last year, Mission: Peachtree 2021 has become an all-hands-on-deck effort for the ATC, which remains committed to hosting an in-person Peachtree 16
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next month and restoring the city’s annual Independence Day tradition. Supported by a COVID advisory group of public health personnel, the ATC has devoted countless hours to developing “safe and appropriate” plans for the upcoming Peachtree event. “We’re not going to be the world’s largest 10K in 2021,” Kenah acknowledges, “but our goal coming out of July 4th is to be the world’s safest 10K.” Pent-up Demand After race cancellations dominated the calendar for much of 2020 and early 2021, races, including mass events like Peachtree, continue returning to communities across the U.S. And by and large, runners are signing up, eager to
return to racing and capture a dose of quasi-normalcy in their athletic lives. When Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, MN, opened registration last October for its marathon, half marathon and 5K slated for June 19, runners gobbled up the 4000 half marathon entries within a day. By Christmas, the event’s 4000 marathon and 1500 5K slots sold out as well. The Gate River Run in Jacksonville, FL, reached its 8000-person limit within two weeks of opening registration last Dec. 1, including 4500 registrations on the first day, reports Doug Alred of 1st Place Sport Running. On March 20, nearly 7000 finishers completed the 15K race — the nation’s largest in-person running event since the pandemic’s appearance in March 2020.
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