Charity Treadmill Challenge to Kick Off 2017 AJC Peachtree Road Race Events

Charity Treadmill Challenge to Kick Off 2017 AJC Peachtree Road Race Events

ATLANTA – June 19, 2017 – A team treadmill challenge to restore a part of Atlanta’s Olympic legacy will kick off days of events surrounding the 2017 AJC Peachtree Road Race. Atlanta Track Club announced today its fourth annual Kilometer Kids Charity Chase to raise money to revitalize Cheney Stadium at Atlanta’s Phoenix Park, which served as the warm-up facility for track and field athletes at the 1996 Olympic Games.

The Kilometer Kids Charity Chase will be stationed at the Peachtree Health & Fitness Expo at the Georgia World Congress Center from 6 p.m. on July 1 to 6 p.m. on July 3. Two teams will compete in a 48-hour treadmill challenge to commemorate the 48th running of the world’s largest 10K. Team Stars and Team Stripes, made up of national and local celebrities as well as participants and supporters of the AJC Peachtree Road Race, will each have one person at a time running on side-by-side Woodway treadmills. The teams are competing to determine who can log the most miles as well as which team raises the most money. All proceeds go towards resurfacing the Cheney Stadium track.

“This track is where legendary track and field athletes such as Dan O’Brien, Michael Johnson, Gwen Torrence and Gail Devers prepared to win their gold medals,” said Rich Kenah, Atlanta Track Club’s executive director. “By working with Atlanta Public Schools to revitalize this venue for the first time since the 1996 Olympic Games, we can create another place for our youth running program to meet and provide a resource for the Atlanta community.”

Atlanta Public Schools currently owns Cheney Stadium and is partnering with Atlanta Track Club on this revitalization effort.

This year’s fundraising efforts come as Atlanta Track Club’s free youth running program marks its 10th anniversary. The program launched in 2007 with one location serving 38 kids. Today Kilometer Kids impacts more than 8,000 children each year in the Atlanta metro area and beyond.

The 2017 AJC Peachtree Road Race will be held on Tuesday, July 4. For more information or to donate to the Kilometer Kids Charity Chase, click here or text KKCC to 444-999.

About Atlanta Track Club
Atlanta Track Club is a nonprofit committed to creating an active and healthy Atlanta. Through running and walking, Atlanta Track Club motivates, inspires and engages the community to enjoy a healthier lifestyle. With more than 27,000 members, Atlanta Track Club is the second largest running organization in the United States. In addition to the AJC Peachtree Road Race (peachtreeroadrace.org) – the largest 10K running event in the world, the Publix Georgia Marathon, PNC Atlanta 10 Miler and Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon, Atlanta Track Club directs more than 30 events per year. Through the support of its members and volunteers, Atlanta Track Club also maintains a number of community initiatives including organizing and promoting the Kilometer Kids youth running program to metro Atlanta youth, honoring high school cross country and track and field athletes through Atlanta Track Club’s All-Metro Banquets and supporting the Grady Bicycle EMT program. For more information on Atlanta Track Club, visit atlantatrackclub.org.

About the AJC Peachtree Road Race
The AJC Peachtree Road Race is a 10K event that takes place every Fourth of July in Atlanta, Georgia.  The first Peachtree was held in 1970 and featured 110 finishers. The AJC Peachtree Road Race is now the largest 10K running event in the world with 60,000 participants. The AJC Peachtree Road Race is perhaps most famous for the coveted AJC Peachtree Road Race T-shirt, which is handed out to all the event finishers. For more information on the AJC Peachtree Road Race visit peachtreeroadrace.org or AJC.com/peachtree.   

About The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the leading source – both in print and online – of news, information and advertising for metropolitan Atlanta, reaching a total print and online audience of 1.6 million people each week. Every month, nearly 6.9 million unique visitors access the newspaper's websites, including AJC.com, myAJC.com and accessAtlanta.com. Our newsroom is the largest in Georgia with more than 150 journalists. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is part of Cox Media Group, a publishing, digital media and broadcasting subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.