How the Peachtree Road Race Works

The Peachtree Road Race is an all-out festival when you take into account the number of people and organizational effort required to put it on each year.

Securing a number can be tough. Roughly 70,000 people apply for those 55,000 numbers. Since 2008, the first 45,000 have been awarded through registration either online (beginning March 21) or by filling out a paper application found in the March 28 edition of the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution." The other 10,000 are selected through a random lottery-type drawing. Typically the online registration is filled within hours of going live. For those who are chosen, a $33 entry fee (a far cry from the $2 fee for the inaugural race) gets you a number. It also garners you a coveted T-shirt, which we'll get into later.

With such a large race, there's a great logistical challenge with shutting down such a busy area of the city on a major holiday. So you'd better get there early if you're running or even watching the race. Because wheelchair racers start at 6:30 a.m. and the first runners head off at 7:30 a.m., the roads in the area around Peachtree Road and the route are shut down beginning at 5 a.m.

Before we take a look at the race route, check out some impressive facts and figures from a typical Peachtree Road Race.

[Source: Atlanta Track Club]

As you can see, a lot goes into the Peachtree Road Race and planning ahead dictates who gets in and who misses out. And for those fortunate enough to get a chance to run, be careful what you wish for. In the next section we'll break down the race course. And as you're about to find out, it's somewhat of a rollercoaster ride. Especially Cardiac Hill.

Part of what makes the Peachtree Road Race so alluring is its course and the challenge of tackling Cardiac Hill in the Georgia summer humidity.

Everyone starts out near Lenox Square Mall on Peachtree Road, then heads south past the original starting line near Paces Ferry Road. Because of the race's immense size, runners begin the race in one of several groups known as starting waves. The first two waves are reserved for the fastest runners, whose registered times must be verified beforehand for placement. Waves are usually sent out in 12-minute increments, and the last runners may not start until well past an hour after the race begins. The first mile is a gradual incline from 996 feet (303.6 meters) to the highest point of the course at the 1-mile marker, an elevation of 1,017 feet (310 meters). From there it's a steep decline over the next mile and a half.

The course bottoms out just before the end of mile three. By now, you've covered 21 feet (about 6 meters) of elevation change. This is where you must dig down deep because the next half of a mile rises sharply to 930 feet. Welcome to Cardiac Hill.

Cardiac Hill peaks in front of Piedmont Hospital (coincidence?) before dipping a bit at the four-mile mark near the on-ramp for Interstate 85. Mile five is a gradual rise in elevation to 973 feet (296.57 m) at 14th Street. From there it's a straight shot downhill to 10th Street where the course finally leaves Peachtree (now Peachtree Street) with a left turn on 10th Street. The final half-mile sprint to the finish is also downhill as the course enters Piedmont Park to the finish line.

Along the route, the participants are motivated by music from several live bands. It takes approximately 3,000 volunteers to put on the race, and more than 150,000 spectators show up to offer encouragement to runners, so it's truly a packed house.

That's the route. Now let's see what goes on once participants converge on Piedmont Park.

Back in the 1980s, the chic souvenir to bring back for someone you really didn't want to spend a ton of money on was a T-shirt that said, "My grandparents went to Hawaii and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." But if it read, "I ran the Peachtree Road Race and all I got was this shirt," people would drool. Why? The Peachtree Road Race T-shirts are a big deal. How big? Each year the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" holds a T-shirt design contest in which the winner is awarded $1,000. But the money doesn't mean as much as seeing your design all over town.

Perhaps the reason T-shirts from the Peachtree Road Race are so popular is that only those who finish the race get one. Upon completion, T-shirts are handed out as long as the runner still has his or her number. In the race's early days, even those who finished weren't guaranteed a shirt because organizers often didn't have enough to give out. That only added to the shirt's lore. Whatever the case, these T-shirts are worn out and about with an almost ostentatious pride. They are a hot commodity.

T-shirts aren't the only things handed out after the race. Winners of the race's various divisions earn a decent paycheck too. The top prize for the men's and women's open is $15,000, while the top man competing for the USA Men's 10K Championship earns $10,000. The total purse for 2010 was $111,300 [source: Running USA].

With so many people, finishes can get exiting. The 2010 race went down as one of the closest finishes ever when Gebre Gebremariam beat Peter Kirui by a half a step with both runners timed at 27 minutes, 56 seconds [source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution]. Joseph Kimani's time of 27:04 in 1996 is the race record as of 2010, while Lornah Kiplagat turned in the fastest women's time of 30:32 in 2002. Olympic champion Mary Decker won the race in 1978.

It isn't uncommon to see celebrities take part in the race either. Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin as well as consumer advocate Clark Howard are just a couple of the high profile names to complete the race. And in 1996 when Atlanta hosted the Olympics, 32 Olympians ran the race.