Today the Atlanta Track Club announced they would suspend their annual marathon because of lagging attendance and instead focus on a new 10-miler race.
It's the second time since 2010 that the organization that has the largest road race in the world with the July 4 Peachtree Road Race has dropped its marathon. Their new efforts mirror a U.S. trend in the rising popularity of the half-marathon and shorter distances.
Still, even with a new pledge of a revamped course (I recalled last October's course as soul-killing), there are still challenges ahead. Only 1,073 people finished last year's 10-miler; other large U.S. cities with similar races field crowds above 10,000.
Even other popular longer-distance races in Atlanta don't even come close to five-digits -- the track club's Thanksgiving Half Marathon had 6,729 finishers and the March Publix Georgia Half Marathon had 7,840.
I would be interested in running in a revamped 10-miler that starts and ends at Atlantic Station. But I will have to wait at least a year, since I'm already signed up for another race on Oct. 26 -- the Marine Corps Marathon.
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