Eleven days ago, I had the privilege of running the 46th Peachtree Road Race and my first since 2012. Family commitments took me out of state for two years, so I was excited to return to the world’s largest 10K that boasts 60,000 runners.
This year’s version featured several firsts. I was 35 minutes into my run, at the corner of Peachtree and 26th street, when a lightning bolt shot across the sky and a clap of thunder immediately followed. The 25,000 runners behind me were held up in the first weather delay in race history. The rest of us picked up our pace a bit as that stunning electrifying display stirred a shot of adrenaline.
The Peachtree Cup premiered as four international teams of six elite athletes, including three men and three women, raced the clock and each other for the first place prize of $42,000. Team Africa took the honors over Team USA, Team Europe and Team Asia.
The men’s race came down to a photo finish with Great Britain’s Scott Overall crossing .09 of a second in front of Colorado’s Ben Payne. Judges took an hour to examine photos before announcing the overall winner.
The prized T-shirt, usually all cotton, was this year part polyester and part cotton. It looks great!
Then there was the downpour. The cool temperatures were welcomed, and a little water was refreshing, but this is the first time I’ve run in squishy shoes. I felt like I had two extra pounds on each foot. We crossed the finish line and filed into Piedmont Park.
Except this year, it was Pied-Mud Park. I imagine many race shoes were discarded after that water-logging.
Yet, the dampness didn’t wash away the fun. My run was just under an hour, not my best time, but I’ll take it. Unless you’re an elite runner, this race is more about the zany atmosphere than setting a personal record. It’s about red, white and blue and patriotic music. It’s about bouncing back from hardship to be there wearing the prestigious race number. Running the Peachtree is a prize for prevailing.
I saw a lady wearing a T-shirt that read, “Back Surgery in March, Road Race in July.”
The AJC’s Mark Bradley wrote about Sharpsburg’s Ferma Ingram, age 76 and a 40-time July 4th Road Race runner. He’d previously run the race after open-heart surgery, after surviving cancer, after a kidney stone and in 2002 with a cracked rib.
On June 11, he fell off a ladder, broke four ribs and punctured a lung. When his wife Joan, a volunteer at Piedmont Fayette Hospital, joined him in the emergency room, she told the doctor: “This will be the first Peachtree he’s missed in almost 40 years.”
Ferma said, “Who says I’m missing it?”
Hospitalized for ten days, he was discouraged from going to the race, much less attempting it. Ferma knew he could walk part of it, so he and his wife made their way to Peachtree Battle, slipped into the mass of runners, and walked the final 3.5 miles.
Amanda Gossart hobbled the entire distance on crutches just two days after getting out of a boot because of a stress fracture in her heel. Her hands were blistered, her arms were tired, and she was tempted to quit.
“Quitting is not part of my vocabulary,” she said.
Around 5,000 runners missed this year, and the spectators were thinner than usual, but the enthusiasm was strong from those who did tolerate the elements. Their cheering was awesome, especially the Shepherd Spinal Center clients who endured the downpour to line the sidewalk in their wheelchairs.
Somewhere in this confluence of grit and determination is a parallel to Christian living. Paul borrowed an athletic analogy when he wrote he was pressing toward the mark (Philippians 3:14), a reference to progressing in Christlikeness. Running the race towards spiritual maturity takes deliberate effort, strong will and a fixed focus to press forward one step at a time, sometimes enduring adverse conditions, and exercising the faith to reach the finish line ahead. So our challenge is to keep running, one step at a time, one mile at a time, one day at a time, until we finish the course.
———
[Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Georgia. The church family gathers at 352 McDonough Road, just past the department of drivers’ services building, and invites you to join them each Sunday for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. Visit them on the web at www.mcdonoughroad.org and like them on Facebook.]
