Celebrate the 4th - 10k Style

So here it is once again... time for my annual jog through the city that I have called home for 23 years. This coming Monday, July 4th, I will participate in the 36th Peachtree Road Race, running 6.2 miles through the ATL from Lenox mall to Piedmont Park.

People ask me why I choose to get up at 5am on a holiday every year and go sweat and struggle through a course made difficult by the intense hills, heat and humidity, and throngs of other race participants...

[from the PRR Web site]
"Not one of the runners who drifted up to Sears for the inaugural run in 1970 could have foreseen he would be among the founding fathers of an event which would, 31 years later, attract 60,000 applications on the day it opened, four months before the event itself. Nor would have they foreseen the 150,000 spectators, the scores of elite runners from around the world, and the three hours of live coverage on TV. One thing they would have understood, however, is how the race represents Atlanta. In 1970, it was a gathering of people from all parts of the City coming together to enjoy their sport and celebrate Independence Day. It still is."

July 4th is the Peachtree RR for me. I run it to see amazing male and female athletes who have no legs overcome adversity and cover the course in the wheelchair division. I run it to hear the Chariots of Fire theme song blasting from an elderly man's boombox as I near mile 2. I run the Peachtree to see the groups of Marines in uniform running with the American Flag. I run it because there are men and women stationed in Irag, Kuwait and Afghanistan running their own version of the Peachtree because they can't be home in Atlanta to do so. I run it because what other opportunity will I have to run through a sprinkler of holy water to cool off?

Oh yeah... and when I'm finished, I get a coveted t-shirt and free Diet Coke!

See you guys Monday morning... with 54,999 of my closest friends.