The Peachtree Road Race (branded Northside Hospital Peachtree Road Race for sponsorship reasons) is a series of two 10-kilometer runs held annually in Atlanta, once during the first weekend of January and the other on Independence Day. They are held on the same course in opposite directions, similar to the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, although unlike the Comrades, the "north" (up) and "south" (down) versions are run in the same year.
The "South" (running down) Peachtree was founded in 1970 and has been the world's largest 10k race since the late 1970s. The race has become a citywide tradition in which over 70,000 amateur and professional runners try to register for one of the limited 60,000 spots. The event also includes a wheelchair race (known as the Shepherd Center wheelchair division), which precedes the footrace. In recent years, the race also has a special division for soldiers stationed in the Middle East. The race attracts some of the world's elite 10K runners and has served as both the United States' men's and women's 10K championship.
Children can participate in the Peachtree Junior 1mile run or 50m Dash, held on July3 in Piedmont Park.
The "North" (running up) Peachtree, officially the Northside Hospital Polar Opposite Peachtree Road Race was announced by the Atlanta Track Club on October 10, 2024. The inaugural was held on January 4, 2025 and will be scheduled for the first Saturday of the new year. As the name implies, the course is run in the opposite direction of the more familiar southern race, from 10th Street at Piedmont Park to Lenox Square.
History
The AJC Peachtree Road Race was started in 1970 by the Atlanta Track Club. The first year, 110 runners ran from the old Sears building at the corner of Peachtree Street and Roswell Road to Central City Park (now Woodruff Park). The race was sponsored by Carling Brewery. The next year, the race increased to 198 runners. Organizers used the sponsorship money to purchase T-shirts but underestimated the number of participants. T-shirts were given out to the first finishers, until they ran out. In 1972, the organizers ordered only 250 T-shirts but 330 runners ran the race. In 1974, the event grew to 765 runners; in 1975 there were over 1,000 runners.
In 1976, Carling Brewery dropped its sponsorship of the race and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began sponsoring the race, bringing it added coverage and popularity, a sponsorship that ran 50 years and 51 races (49 south and two north races). That year over 2,300 runners competed. In 1977 over 6,500 runners competed, overwhelming the capacity of Central City Park. As a result, in 1978 the course was moved to starting at Lenox Square and finishing at Piedmont Park. In 1979 the race attracted over 20,000 runners. In 1980, the number of participants was limited to 25,000 runners, which continued until 1990. In 1982, the Shepherd Center wheelchair division was formed for the race.
The race became so popular that by 1989, the race reached capacity in only nine days and Atlanta Track Club increased the limit to 40,000 in 1990. In 1992, it expanded to 45,000 runners; in 1995, it expanded to 50,000 runners, followed by a 10% expansion in 1998 to 55,000 runners; it would not be until 2011 that the capacity was expanded to 60,000.
The AJC Peachtree Road Race has become an event important in Atlanta culture. In addition to the 60,000 participants, there are approximately 150,000 observers who line both sides of the entire course to cheer and support the runners. Some runners deliberately wear costumes, many of which are patriotic (due to the event's occurring on Independence Day). The entire race is also televised on WXIA-TV.
The race hosted the USA Men's 10 km Championship in 2007.
2008 changes With the entire north Georgia region facing historic drought conditions in 2008, water conservation measures were enacted prohibiting outdoor watering of plants and lawns. As a result of the watering ban, the City of Atlanta decided to prohibit large festivals (over 50,000 people) from using Piedmont Park in 2008 in order to protect the grass lawns which could not be watered. Displaced events included the Atlanta Pride, Jazz, and Dogwood Festivals as well as the Peachtree Road Race which traditionally used Piedmont Park for the finish line of the race and distribution of T-shirts. The AJC Peachtree Road Race considered moving the finish area to Georgia Tech, but Georgia Tech refused, citing safety concerns. On February 19, it was announced that the race finish line would be at the intersection of Juniper Street and Ponce de Leon Avenue in Midtown. Runners then walked three more blocks to the Atlanta Civic Center parking area where the awards stage, family meeting area and sponsor village were located. The race returned to its previous course in 2009.
2009 changes Starting in 2009, and in association with Atlanta Track Club, registration applications began to be accepted online on the Active.com site starting on the third Sunday in March. Controversy ruled over the 2009 registration, as over 800 complaints were filed because of server failures by the outsourced registration. The 45,000 applications sold out within hours.
The following Sunday, applications for the 10,000 slot lottery are published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. These slots are randomly selected from remaining applications post-marked by March 31.
Atlanta Track Club experimented in November 2008 at The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon and Half Marathon with implementation of the ChronoTrack D-Tag transponder system, a disposable tag system. Following its success, the organization announced that starting with the 2009 Peachtree, all runners—not just the elite and timegroup 1 runners—will be timed. Doing this will help with positioning runners for future Peachtree events.
2010 changes Online registration for the 2010 PRR opened on Sunday, March 21, at 1:00 pm. The first 45,000 online applicants receive race entry. Additionally, a paper application appeared in the March 28 AJC. 10,000 entries were to be randomly selected from all paper applications received. The online spots were filled in less than five hours.
In one of the biggest changes seen in race history, starting assignments for all participants will be performance-based. Once the top-seeded and sub-seeded runners start, timegroups 1A, 1B, and 2-9 have been replaced with start waves A-W (19 in total, with letters I, O, Q and V omitted). Applicants are able to submit results from an official race (run on a USATF-certified course), run on or after March 1, 2008, of distances of 5 miles, 10K, 10 miles, the 1/2 marathon, and for the first time, the shorter 5K distance.
2011 changes Atlanta Track Club switched to an exclusive lottery format online for the 2011 Peachtree. Most of the 60,000 positions were determined by a lottery draw, with selected exceptions for elite invited athletes, the members of the organizing club, and those who have run ten or more consecutive Peachtree Road Races, all of which were allowed automatic entry. Also, those who pay $150 for the organizers' charity would be automatically entered.
2020 cancellation The March 15 opening of lottery and Atlanta Track Club member registration occurred just four days after the Rudy Gobert COVID-19 positive test at an NBA game that caused a shutdown of sport in the United States. The resulting lottery and club member registration only drew 45,000 entries, with the race only was three-fourths full by the traditional lottery deadline of March 31. Atlanta Track Club cancelled the drawing, awarding all 45,000 entries an automatic entry into the Peachtree.
On May 1, 2020, the Atlanta Track Club announced the cancellation of the Invesco QQQ Half Marathon usually held on Thanksgiving Day and will instead hold the Peachtree on November 26, 2020, a byproduct of the coronavirus pandemic. A second round of member registration will be held in September, followed by registration to fill out the field later in the month, for the November date.
The race was officially cancelled in August 2020, which the Atlanta Track Club used to move two other races that were to be part of the Triple Peach outside Fulton County, which was under restrictions imposed by the county, and into closed-course motor racing circuits (which are private property) outside the county. The PNC 10 Miler in October moved to Michelin Raceway in Hall County and the 2021 Atlanta Marathon was relocated to the perimeter roads and parking lots surrounding, and finishing with laps inside, Atlanta Motor Speedway in Henry County.
51st Peachtree: July 3–4, 2021 The Atlanta Track Club announced in January 2021 that the 51st Peachtree Road Race would be held July 3–4, 2021, with runners being assigned to either the July 3 or July 4 wave. The two-day event was held on its traditional course.
55th Peachtree: North and South Peachtrees and Lottery Returns Changes were made to the Peachtree Road Race for 2025. During the 2024 AJC Peachtree Road Race, it was announced after four years without a lottery, demand returned to pre-pandemic levels and the Peachtree lottery draw returned. A one-week span from July 4–11 allowed participants to enter the race without being put in the lottery.
On October 10, 2024, the Atlanta Track Club meeting where the 2025 schedule for the organisation was announced, the new "north" version of the Peachtree, the AJC Polar Opposite Peachtree, was announced. It is scheduled for the first weekend of January, with the course going in the opposite direction, similar to the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. Registration for that race was started November 1, 2024, and sold out in less than six hours. In keeping with the Peachtree Road Race tradition, finishers receive a hooded sweatshirt. It was announced on January 16, 2025 that registration for the 2026 "north" Peachtree will be open to Atlanta Track Club members for one day only in February and registration for the general public will begin on July 4, 2025, after the end of the "south" Peachtree. Both the north and south races will have registration open on July 4 for the next year's race.
56th South Peachtree (2026): A New Beginning The second North Peachtree drew 7,214 runners on January 3, 2026.
With the ceasing of publication of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by owners Cox Media, the Atlanta Track Club announced on February 10, 2026, effective immediately for the 56th south Peachtree, the Northside Hospital System will be named title sponsor of both Peachtree events. Qualification Qualifying events The Peachtree Road Race has a list of regional races that serve as qualifiers for the race.
January Braselton Lifeway 8K/5K MLK Day 5k Drum Run Peachtree City 8K/15K Norcross High School Blue Devils Run Dr. James H. Crowdis Run 5K/10K Milton Boys Lacrosse 5K Cool Shark 5K The Frozen 5K First Watch Locomotive Half Marathon/5K East Metro Atlanta 5K February Atlanta Hawks Fast Break 5K PT Solutions Cupid Chase 5K Run For Angels 5K/10K Suwanee Half Marathon Tartan Trot 5K/10K Hearts & Soles 5K Southsides Fastest 5k The With or Without You 5K Atlanta Mission 5k Race to End Homelessness Wiphan Warthog Waddle Love Run 5K sponsored by DeKalb DA Sherry Boston Augusta University Half Marathon, 10K, & 5K Run for the Son Love in Action 5K March Awesomesauce 5K and 1 Mile Fun Run Chattahoochee Road Race 10K & 5K Dental Dash at Dawn 5k Finish Lion 5K Run Dahlonega 5K Berry Half Marathon/10k/5k Shamrock 'N Roll Road Race Marietta Shamrock Shuffle 5k Gwinnett Life Run 5K Water Drop Dash 5k Publix Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon Atlanta Women's 5K Cass Cannonball 5K/10K Refuge Run 5K/10K Brookhaven Cherry Blossom Festival 5K Run For Ronald 5K Chasing Moonlight/Racing Sunlight, the Tropical Smoothie Cafe 5K in Paradise The Lucky Leprechaun 5K Junior League of Macon Road Race April The Daffodil Dash