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Atlanta's unprecedented drought had forced city officials to restrict the use of Piedmont Park, leaving the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race high and dry with no finish area. The massive July 4 event is the world's largest 10-K.
But today, race organizers announced that they had found a new finish area for the 39th edition of the event. The Atlanta Track Club, the not-for-profit which founded and organizes the race, announced that the race will now have one additional turn and will finish at the intersection of Juniper and Ponce de Leon in midtown Atlanta. The field of over 55,000 runners will then walk on city streets to the Civic Center parking area where the awards stage, family meeting area, and sponsor village will be located.
The start will still take place at the Lenox Square Mall, and the rest of the course will remain unchanged.
"We hope this change to the finish line is not permanent," said Tracey Russell, the Atlanta Track Club's executive director through a media release. "When the drought situation improves, our goal is to move the finish back to the Park. The City of Atlanta and the Civic Center have been helpful and gracious in making the change for this year as seamless as possible, so that our runners can be assured the same world class race they are accustomed to."
Registration for the 2008 edition of the race opens on Sunday, March 16, when the paper application appears in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper. The online application will be available the following day at AtlantaTrackClub.org. The first 45,000 applications received will gain entry; the event typically fills within the first few days of registration. The remaining 10,000 slots are filled through a lottery system for all remaining applications postmarked by March 31.
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