Peachtree Road Race

The Peachtree Road Race is a 10K held every July 4 in Atlanta, Georgia, and is widely billed as the largest 10K road race in the world, drawing roughly 55,000 registered runners and hundreds of thousands of spectators along the course. Founded in 1970 by the Atlanta Track Club with just 110 runners, the race has grown into an Atlanta Independence Day tradition and includes an elite professional field, a wheelchair division that has run since 1982, and a huge participatory wave-start field of joggers and walkers. The point-to-point course starts at Lenox Square in Buckhead and finishes on 10th Street at Piedmont Park in Midtown, dropping gradually through the first three miles before climbing the notorious 'Cardiac Hill' between miles three and four, then descending to the finish inside Piedmont Park. The race has carried several title sponsors over its history: Carling Brewery backed the first editions in the 1970s, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) sponsored it from 1976 until the newspaper ceased publication in 2026, and Northside Hospital became the new title partner that same year. Entry is largely by lottery, alongside a guaranteed-entry track for Atlanta Track Club members. Race morning in Atlanta is typically hot and humid, so organizers stage the start in early morning waves beginning around 7:00 a.m.