Every Fourth of July, while most of America is arguing about charcoal versus gas grills, tens of thousands of people in Atlanta are doing something a little different: running 6.2 miles up and down Peachtree Street in the Georgia heat, on purpose, for fun. It’s called the Peachtree Road Race, and it has grown from a scrappy backyard jog into the largest 10K on the planet. Here’s how a parking lot full of runners turned into one of the most beloved sporting traditions in the country.

Humble Beginnings in a Sears Parking Lot
The story starts on July 4, 1970. No fireworks, no finisher medals, no giant expo tents — just 150 runners gathered in the parking lot of a Sears store at the corner of Peachtree Street and Roswell Road. Of those 150, 110 actually crossed the finish line 6.2 miles later at Central City Park, now known as Woodruff Park. That group earned themselves a permanent nickname in Atlanta running lore: the “Original 110.”

Carling Brewery sponsored that inaugural race, which is a fitting detail for anyone who appreciates a good beer story tucked inside a running one. The following year, the race handed out its now-famous finisher t-shirts for the first time, a tradition so beloved that Peachtree tees have become a kind of unofficial currency among Atlanta runners, with some collectors proudly displaying decades of shirts on a single wall.

Growing Pains (In a Good Way)
By 1975, the race had grown tenfold to around 1,000 participants. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution stepped in as title sponsor in 1976, giving the event both its official name and a media megaphone that helped it snowball. Two years later, in 1978, the race moved its starting line to Lenox Square in Buckhead and shifted the finish to Piedmont Park — the same essential start-and-finish setup runners use today.

The 1980s brought more milestones. In 1982, the Shepherd Center’s Wheelchair Division was added, and it has since become one of the largest and fastest wheelchair 10K races in the country, complete with its own prize purse and a devoted following of racers who return year after year.

As popularity exploded, the Atlanta Track Club had to get creative about crowd control. The race cap crept upward over the decades — 25,000, then 40,000, then 45,000, then 50,000, then 55,000 — with each increase testing the limits of how many runners could safely funnel into Piedmont Park at once. Today the race is capped at 60,000 participants, and thanks to an online lottery system introduced in 2011, getting a spot is its own small Fourth of July tradition, right down to checking your email to see if you got in.

A Race That Reflects Atlanta’s Story
The Peachtree isn’t just a running event — it’s woven into the city’s civic identity. Since 2004, satellite Peachtree races have been held for U.S. troops stationed overseas, starting with a race in Iraq. By 2007, soldiers were running simultaneous Peachtree races in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan, with roughly 3,000 combined participants marking the Fourth of July far from home.

The race has also weathered real disruption. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Peachtree became a two-day event for the first time, spreading participants across July 3 and July 4 to encourage social distancing, before eventually shifting to a virtual format that year. It was the first time in the race’s history that the traditional in-person run didn’t happen as planned — proof that even a 50-year streak can bend without breaking.

Longevity is part of the Peachtree’s charm. Runners who complete ten or more consecutive races earn automatic entry in future years, a perk that rewards the kind of dedication seen in local legends who’ve laced up every single July 4th for decades, turning a race morning into a standing family reunion.

Not Just a Race — A Rite of Passage
For children too young (or too smart) to tackle the full 10K, the Peachtree Junior offers a one-mile run and a 50-meter dash, typically held the day before the main event in Piedmont Park. It’s become its own tradition-within-a-tradition, letting the next generation of Atlanta runners get their own taste of Peachtree morning before they’re ready for the real thing.

And for those who prefer their Peachtree upside down (literally), the Atlanta Track Club introduced the “Polar Opposite” Peachtree in January 2025 — the same course run in reverse, starting at Piedmont Park and finishing at Lenox Square, held on the first Saturday of the new year. It’s proof that once a city falls in love with a race, it finds ways to run it twice.

Why It Still Matters
Nearly 500 times larger than that original group of 150, the modern Peachtree Road Race is a genuine only-in-Atlanta institution: part serious athletic competition (it has served as the U.S. men’s and women’s 10K championship), part neighborhood block party, part Independence Day ritual. It draws elite international runners to the same starting line as first-timers running in costume, all sweating through the same hilly stretch of Peachtree Street under the same brutal Georgia July sun.

Fifty-plus years after the Original 110 took off from that Sears parking lot, the race is still doing exactly what it did in 1970: bringing Atlanta together, one humid, hilly, unforgettable mile at a time.

More About the Atlanta Track Club
Atlanta Track Club has grown into one of the largest and most active running organizations in the country, serving more than 21,000 members across metro Atlanta. As a nonprofit built around the simple idea that running and walking can transform a community’s health, the Club organizes a full calendar of races, training programs, and youth initiatives designed for everyone from first-time joggers to elite athletes. Its mission centers on accessibility — the belief that the sport should welcome people of every age, background, and ability level — and that philosophy shows up in everything from beginner training groups to its competitive Atlanta Track Club Elite program, which supports rising talent with dedicated coaching, sports medicine, and nutrition resources.

The Club’s best-known event, the Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Race, has earned Atlanta a reputation as one of America’s great running cities, but it’s just one piece of a much larger year-round effort. Programs like Kilometer Kids introduce thousands of local students to running each year, while a growing lineup of races and community runs keeps Atlanta Track Club’s presence woven into neighborhoods across the region. Looking ahead, the organization is investing in the future of the sport locally, with plans to elevate the Atlanta Marathon into a nationally recognized destination race and to build a dedicated indoor training facility — all part of a broader push to make Atlanta a healthier, more connected city, one mile at a time.
Atlanta Track Club
201 Armour Dr NE
Atlanta, GA 30324
Website: atlantatrackclub.org