Independence Day Bests at 39th Peachtree

The 39th Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta provided quite a few party favors on the nations birthday. Four Marathon Performance athletes ran fast on the 6.2 mile course along with 55,000 other runners. James Carney, Boaz Cheboiywo, Sally Meyerhoff, and Kelly Jaske each posted personal road bests along the 10k course which finished at Piedmont Park. The race also doubled as the 2009 USATF Men’s 10k Road Race Championships.

Finish area for 39th Peachtree Road Race (Photo/nperumbeti)

Carney, coming off strong showing at USA’s, finished 9th overall as the 3rd American (28:18). Peachtree was Carney’s first road race since finishing as the first American at Bolder Boulder.

Boaz Cheboiywo also ran a personal road best in 28:05. The Kenyan, who will gain his American citizenship in 2010 originally finished in 5th place until a protest was filed against the 4th place finisher. After official review, the protest was upheld and the 4th place finisher, Tadese Tola, was disqualified from the race. Video released late Sunday night showed Tola extending his arm as Boaz attempted to pass only meters from the finish line. Three master-level USATF officials each signed written statements saying they witnessed the alleged incident. Race officials from the Atlanta Track Club awarded Cheboiywo 4th place 24-hours after the original protest had been filed. Tola’s camp failed to protest the ruling in time.

Sally Meyerhoff finished as the 2nd American woman in 33:10, marking another road PB. Her last race was on June 25 in the Women’s 10k Finals at the 2009 USA National Championships. Prior to that, she ran in the Portland Track & Field Festival finishing first in the Women’s 10k in 33:14.14. Meyerhoff, who recently moved to Eugene, has posted a PR in every race she’s participated in over the past month.

Kelly Jaske rounded out the Marathon Performance crew as the fourth American woman to finish the race (33:31, road PB). Jaske was running her first race since the NYRR Women’s Mini 10k on June 6 (33:39). After missing out on a USA Outdoor Championships qualifying race with flu like symptoms, Jaske has been able to recover and train healthy for the past several weeks.

Results can be found below. A big thanks to the Atlanta Track Club for putting on a great event.

Men

Women