AJ and Erika: We ran the twenty twenty six Peachtree Road Race, but it wasn't without its challenges. But getting to the race expo was pretty easy, right? It took us almost two hours to get from the outside of the mall parking lot into the parking garage. But once we got through the mall, getting into the tent was okay. The line was outside the tent and around the entire building. At least it was a beautiful day outside, right? No, there was a thunderstorm with lightning and torrential rain. Okay, but since we were expo volunteers, we got to go in the tent and all was good from there, right? Quite, we had to evacuate three times because the thunder and lightning. After our four hour shift, we at least had a good healthy meal. Fried chicken. Dessert. Great American Cookie Company. But at least we had a healthy lunch earlier in the day. Chipotle? Since we had to get up at 4 a.m., we knew we had to go to bed early. And we did that, right? Midnight. The weather report for the next day was good. We were starting under a red flag heat advisory. But when it's all said and done, the reason a lot of people do this race is for the famous Peach Tree Road Race t-shirt that you get at the end. It was awesome, right? It's hideous and yellow. Dang. Was the Peachtree Road race even worth doing? Absolutely. We will definitely be doing it every year. Hey there, friends. Welcome to a bonus episode of One More Run the Podcast. My name's AJ. And I'm Erica. And we host One More Run the Podcast to help you feel confident, prepared, inspired for your next race adventure. And sometimes we do a bonus episode where it's kind of ⁓ a little bit of a deviation in terms of topic. And most of these are race recaps for us where it's not a Run Disney race. Erica, we kind of were being silly there at the front end about all the things that went wrong about the peach tree. But can you describe like What the peach tree is, why we do it, when we started it. Can you give us just a smidge of background of of like what the peach tree is and what it means to us? Yeah. So last year was our first year doing it. And I would say that outside of Disney, it's probably the biggest party race that we've done so far. I think it's probably the biggest party race there is outside of Disney. Right? Yeah. Like just tons of fun. I don't know. Just everyone's goofy and and I don't know. It's just fun environment. Yeah. How was year two? Like not like we'll talk about some of the things that went wrong and some of the things we love, but like in general, how was year two compared to year one for you? This was our second time. Mm-hmm. Well, it was fun this year because we had a friend that came with us. It was his first race, and that was Chuck. And ⁓ that was cool to see him. He actually he ⁓ accomplished his goal that he set out to do, which is awesome. He's gonna get a time goal for Princess. Yes. ⁓ so that was exciting. And then there was some good cloud coverage, so it wasn't quite as hot this year as it felt like it was last year. I agree with that. Although we were under a Good advisory. Yeah. ⁓ but yeah. Okay. Why would somebody like not thinking about like all the things or whatever about this year, why would somebody want to sign up for this race? Right. It's a 10K on the fourth of July. You gotta be there really early in the morning. In general, why do people do this race? Do you think? Why did we do this race? Well, I mean, it's local it for us, it's fun. I think it's becomes kind of a tradition for people, especially that live near Atlanta. Yeah. ⁓ although there are lots of people that flew in for it too. Certainly. ⁓ if you don't want to run, there's massive party in the back. Waves go to like U or V. I don't know. All the way the whole alphabet. So like there's there's places for elite athletes and there's places for people who just want to party and have fun. So that's right. Yeah. It's tons of fun. I said on Holler Hype, like on my little tag thing, I said, doing the world's largest 10K today. Yeah. And I'm surprised the number of people didn't know it was the world's largest 10K. I mean 60,000 runners. Yeah. Which is a lot. You know, I mean there are bigger races, but in terms of 10K, I it it holds the record. Yep. At least that's what they kept saying over and over and over again. Every every chance they got, they told us that. Yep. ⁓ for this episode, I thought we could talk through this year's experience. Yeah. ⁓ for people who just kind of care what was 2026 like. We can talk about the good and the bad and then boil it down like we've done with other races. Like, is this a race worth doing? Right. We ⁓ a spoiler alert, we think so. Yes. Like we're gonna get to the end and we're gonna say, yeah, we think this race is awesome. Yeah. But there are considerations. If you like live in Minneapolis and you're thinking about flying in, like we're gonna tell you some of the hard things about this race weekend. Right. Where they host the expos, not the best. You know, like things like that. And so we we we want to share our experience, give you something to listen to. There's funny stories in here, and that is the goal for today. Any other comments, Erica? Nope. Before we dive right into ⁓ maybe the timeline. No. Of kind of things. And we did something new this year, which is we volunteered at the We did. It was so much fun. So we have lots to talk about. Yeah. You ready? Yep. Let's do it. Okay. So Friday, July third, we drove up to Atlanta super early because getting in and out of Atlanta on a Friday, especially on a holiday weekend, during World Cup. During the World Cup. Like it's it's Atlanta traffic is just hideous. Yeah. You know. And I know that yeah, if you live in New York or LA, you're like, ⁓ please, don't even. Right. Let me just put it this way. People have been moving here. from LA and New York and all over the country, especially after COVID, and just completely destroyed our traffic. You know, because imagine, I mean you and I are from California. We drive like California drivers. Right. With all the Southerners who are not used to us being here. Right. You know what I mean? And ⁓ you know, I my example of that is, you know, when there's like a lane ends, uhhuh, you know, like on the right. Right. And ⁓ Californians use every inch of that lane. Right. They do like the zipper method. Yes. Yes. Which is the proper way to do it. Yes. It's the most efficient, but not if you're really nice and kind and you're from the south. Lane is ending in two miles. ⁓ I'm gonna get over and make sure that I, you know, I'm I'm not being rude to anybody, whatever. But then what do those southerners do? They get real mad. Of course, we're one of those southerners now. So anyway, this is not an episode about the traffic, but how is the traffic getting up to Atlanta on a Friday of the fourth of July weekend? ⁓ my gosh. Well, I feel like the traffic getting there is not the thing that stood out in my mind. The thing that's out of my mind is that we got to the outside of the mall. Yes. Where the expo was going to be held. There was a big tent out in the parking lot. Yep. And they told the volunteers we want you to park in a certain lot. And so as we were approaching, we noticed it was coned off. Yes. And the officer said they told us to close this off. You're gonna have circle around. Folks, it took us two hours to get from the outside of the mall into the parking garage. Yes. It was the most frustrating thing ever. We had talked about getting there early to pick up our bibs before we volunteered. Uh-huh. Forget that. We barely made it to our volunteer time. Yeah. We walked in with one minute. Yes. before our volunteer, whatever. And we told them, we said, we didn't pick up our bibs when whatever. Like, what do want us to do? Because ⁓ you know, we're here for our shift, but we didn't get on any of our stuff. And we were closing down the expo. So ⁓ fortunately they said, it's all right, you can pick up your bibs while you're you know, while you're volunteering. So no big deal. ⁓ but ⁓ getting in that I mean I I walked in ⁓ frustrated. You know, like like my ⁓ you know, when your senses are just like Yeah. I walked into the expo that way. ⁓ we kind of joked in the little intro thing or whatever, but like Finding just getting from the garage to the ⁓ the tent. The tent. Which was in the parking lot. So like we had to go through the mall. It was so frustrating. It is. But we should say that ⁓ they used to do it somewhere else, which is a little bit better. And the plan, I believe, is for them to go back. So hopefully what we're telling you now should not apply next year if you decide to volunteer. That's right. ⁓ they hosted at Lennox Mall, which is in Buckhead. And if you know anything about Georgia, you're like, who would want to go to Buckhead? Like that's a nice part of town. Like it's a nice area, but who would want to go to Buckhead on a Friday? Right. You know, like it's just the craziest, most worst traffic part of town anyway. Yes. And so hopefully they move it back to the what ⁓ normally the George or World Congress Center. If you're not from here, that doesn't even matter. You don't even care. I don't know why I'm saying that. But hopefully it goes back to the World Congress Center. ⁓ my understanding is the World Cup messed that up. Yes. That was the problem. Yes. Okay. So we finally got in. Well, actually, we walked out of the mall, right? Through the maze of the mall and whatever. And we walk we're walking out of the door and we can see the tent. And we walk out of the door. And what are we hit with right there outside of the mall? You remember? I was talking about the line or the or the rain. Okay, yeah. Well, I don't think the rain was like super super bad yet. No, yeah. But the line was coming out the tent around like the entire perimeter of the mall, essentially. It was like an hours, hours long line, it seemed like it looked like it. It was a minimum, like when you were looking at it. Mm-hmm. And it was raining, people were holding umbrellas, some people not, like just getting soaked. Yeah. ⁓ you were you could look at this line and immediately say, That line is over an hour. You know what I mean? Probably an hour and a half or more. You know? And so we went and checked in for volunteer stuff. And right as we checked in, and you know, they gave us our shirts and and the stuff we got for volunteering, which we should talk about the cool goodies we got. Yeah. But once we did that, and we'd never volunteered at a race before. Well, I I kind of just threw this out at you last minute, like, hey, they have spots to volunteer at the expo. We can't volunteer at the race because we're running it. Do you want to do it? And you were like, sure. Yeah. We have to go anyway, you know, to the expo. So we kind of tried to, you know, do something new and fun and whatever. We get in, they're like, All right, here's your assignments. You go here, you go here, whatever. And they gave us assignments and I was getting trained on my position. Uh-huh. And literally, like two, I'm I'm registering people. Two people in. ⁓ huh. Someone comes over to me and goes, like, get out of the tent. Right. They're like, we're evacuating. Get out of the tent now. Right. And ⁓ the thunder and lightning. We're not supposed to be in there. Correct. And so we go outside and it's pouring. And this line that was already there, those poor people, they weren't gonna give up their spot in line. So we the volunteers had a like a what a safety, what do you call it? Right. Like a meetup spot. Yeah. We stood in the coach department of ⁓ of Macy's. Yeah. But we had a designated, you know, this is where you go, you know, like This is where we go in a fire drill, this is where we go in a t or in a tornado, whatever. Right. And so we went there. The volunteers were standing there, whatever, but all those people, they didn't want to give up their spot in line. Who knows how long they've been waiting. Yes. ⁓ I felt terrible for them. And I later read online that nobody told them what we were doing. ⁓ really? Uh-huh. They just they just were just standing there longer and longer, not knowing. Well, that's fun. Yeah, it's terrible. ⁓ man. I'm glad that didn't happen to us. So ⁓ they evacuated three times. Which I think is how the line got so back. Probably, yeah. Yep. When we got back in, so we all go back to our positions. We were doing bib pickup. Yep. Yes. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Well, I want to talk all about that. But it was the the parking lot was like a slight grade, you know, like whatever. I'm standing there and water is rushing over my shoes. Yes. Because we're in a parking lot tent and the rain has the rain, the lightning stopped, but the rain's still going. Yes. And I'm just getting wet. I know. There was this poor lady that was basically at like the information desk. Yeah. And she was wearing these like canvas Bob is the brand, but these little canvas shoes and she had water like up to her ankles. ⁓ no. Just soak standing there with her shoes soaked. Yeah. But yeah. So what r I say all this because we ended up volunteering doing bib pickup. Yes. You know, I got to you know, go to I was, you know, they the way they do it is like ⁓ Every wave they are the call corral's waves. Yes. Every wave has its own desk. Right. Right. So I went to F. I was a J. You were a J. And you get you get trained on how to use the phone to scan people and you scan their bib and you check their ID and you whatever. Anyway, I just it's so funny because I'm like, I was meant to be here today. Because we like it, like we've said before, like when you're having a bad day, talk to somebody else or be a be a little bit of bright light, whatever in there, whatever. And a lot of the other volunteers were really efficient and really good at what they were doing. Right. But like you and I being the a me a part two on the Enneagram and you a full two on the Enneagram. Yes. Yeah. This was my experience. Someone would walk up and I would grin from ear to ear. Yeah. Not a care in the world about how goofy I looked. Right. And just overwhelm them. Yeah. With hi, how are you? I'm so sorry about the rain and whatever. I got you. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And I just had so much fun doing that. Yeah. More like ⁓ checking people in and stuff. That that's fun. But like I loved the people that I got to like overwhelm with a smile. And then they you saw them just kind of like breathe. Yeah. You know? And ⁓ and calm down for just a second. ⁓ was that your experience too? Yeah. The first time that I told somebody, have a great race tomorrow. Yeah. That almost like confused them because everyone was in such like you said, they were in such a bad mood from waiting outside in the rain and everything. And I don't blame them. No, not at all. ⁓ but it was like, ⁓ yeah, we're here to have fun this weekend. We forgot. I told I told five hundred people, Yeah, have fun tomorrow. Right. Yeah. You know, and you're to your point, some people were like, Fun tomorrow? Why am I having fun? ⁓ that's right. ⁓ that's right. We're running a risk. Yes. Or really fun was like checking in the little kids. I mean, not little kids, young teenagers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And some of them it was their first race and that that was cool too. So I had to check IDs. Mm-hmm. Right. Because if you're twenty one and over, then you mark this thing on their bib so they can get a beer after the race or whatever. And I asked this twelve year old, I'm like, All right, can I see your ID? And she's like, ⁓ I don't have an ID, but she was the first kid that I checked in. Right, right, right. And no one told me in my training what to do if it's a kid. Yeah. I'm like, ⁓ I guess I don't like logically, I don't need it because I'm not marking that you can drink. So never mind. No no need for looking at They just told us to like verify their date of birth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I I missed that part of the training. The other part of the training I missed was apparently if you you could pre order a ⁓ like a subway card. Right. The ⁓ the we call it Marta. Right. And or not, we call it. That's what it's called in Atlanta. Right. You and I just call Martha Mart. ⁓ and so you get you if you pre-ordered it, yeah, you're supposed to hand it out. No one's no one told us that. Not over what I I get to the end of my four hour shift. I've handed out all these bibs and whatever. Right. And I saw when I would scan people in, it says pre ordered Marta. Right. And I'm like, ⁓ well, that's nice. And didn't no one told me that I was supposed to hand them a pre ordered Marta card. And I'm sure people are like leaving the expo, like, wait a minute, where's my pre ordered MARDA card? Yeah. I think I had like five people ask me about it and I just sent them to like the information desk. But I know like at the end when they were collecting stuff from each station, someone was walking by looking behind our bibs for like there she said, Do you have any MARTA cards? And I'm like, wait, there was an actual card? Like I was like, Well, maybe if they scan their little QR code, I don't I have no idea. Yep. We don't ride Marta. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. I've only been a couple times. That's definitely a fail, but but things were a little chaotic, so I don't blame our trainers at all. They literally were training us when they were evacuating us. Right, yeah. And when we got back, like I just kind of had to assume a few things. Right, yeah. You know, ⁓ I did make the mistake when I got really comfortable. I made the mistake of because I now I'm in the zone. Right. Right. I'm checking people in and I like I have that like, how do I be kind and get more people through my line than anybody else's line? Those are three. Like I was so good, Erica, that the girl come came over to F and goes, Hey, we're really backed up in tea. Would you be willing to go over to tea? And I'm Yeah, I would. Like, put me where the problem is. Right. Yeah. You know, like the achiever like was all in. ⁓ yeah. And so I'm like, whatever. But then I got comfortable. And now like my confidence got a little too high. I started saying to people, Great. I hope you have an awesome race tomorrow. Do you have any other questions? ⁓ no. And then they started asking. Yeah, you open a bacana worms. Yeah. People would be like, Actually, am I allowed to wear a hydration backpack? And I'm like, ⁓ She's like, I brought you here to move the line along. But I realized I was like, I gave them the opportunity to ask questions that I didn't really know the solid answer to. Right. And I'm like, hmm. As a cast member, you're like, I don't know, but let me find someone who knows. So I had a I had a buddy at my desk. I'd be Hey, do you know anything about hydration backpacks? So and then I had to stop saying, Do you have any more questions? Because people were asking, Can I can I pin my bib to my shorts? And I'm like, thinking in my head, well at Run Disney, no. Here I'm not sure. You know? So we actually had some Run Disney ⁓ other fellow volunteers. Yes, we sure did. We we were wearing the same well not same, but we were both wearing Run Disney shoes. Disney Brooks, yeah. Yep. So it was fun. They what what'd she say? Six time Dopey? Is that what she said she was? I don't remember. I think so. Okay. And they'd done Princess and Springtime and all that. So it was fun to talk Run Disney with some folks. Yes, absolutely. ⁓ any other thoughts on Just the volunteer experience, Yana. No, it was super fun. I definitely think we should do it again. I liked the bib check ⁓ bib check-in. Yes. I don't think I would have been great. Yeah. I don't know that I would want to do any other position, but I really loved bib check-in. Yeah. If it was like, you know, traffic control or bag hander outer or even like the like the the information desk. ⁓ no, that would not have been the best place for me. ⁓ I think we magically got put in the right spot where it's like we can greet people. We're efficient. We know how to use the technology and we can encourage them on their way to the next thing. That's right. And so I think ⁓ we should do that again next year. Totally. We got some cool stuff. We did, yeah. We got cool shirts, which is better than the finisher shirt we got. That's right. ⁓ we'll talk about that in a second. Got a cool pin ⁓ that says volunteer on it. You know, they've got the logo and all stuff. Coupons for stuff. Got a home depot apron. I'm not sure if I'm gonna use that. I don't think I'll be wearing that again. Home Depot is a sponsor. So it's fun. Cool. I had a good, I had a good time. And then ⁓ after that we ⁓ helped them tear down a little bit and then ⁓ we ⁓ I have a funny story about that. Okay. So because we had been evacuated, she asked if we could stay late. Yeah. So she's coming around saying, Can you guys stay till seven? Blah, blah, blah. And I said I'm sure I can. I just have to ask my husband. Yeah. And she goes, Is he the one that said put me in the hardest job? And I Yeah. And she ⁓ he already said, Yeah, I could stay as long as you need to. I was like, Perfect. Sorry. No, I was good to stay. I was like, let me just check with him. ⁓ no, he already volunteered, y'all. That's so funny. I didn't even check with you. You're like so nice. You're like, let me check with the check in with AJ and find out. I'm like, Yeah. So I had a really good time. It was it was really it was tons of fun. ⁓ of course, when we were done, we were like ⁓ extroverted out. You know what I mean? Like I was done with people and all that. And in a good way. Yeah. Like I felt like I was there to do what I was supposed to do. And ⁓ I said, all right, we need I need to eat. Let's go eat. Right. You know? And you, you're so funny. You know me so well. You knew that I would want to like get on the road and find some food down the road. Let's get out of the city. All that. And you're like, we need to eat here because Knowing you, we're gonna like make it home. And we'll make it halfway home and we might as well just get all the way home. And then I'm gonna be hungry. We hadn't eaten in like seven hours or so. You pull we looking up the m-we're looking on the map, like what's here, and we look in the traffic around on the on the map, on the Google Maps is all red, solid red. So I'm like, food court, it is. You know, so we went to the food court and that's where ⁓ we saw one of our favorite places, Shake Shack. Mm-hmm. ⁓ cheeseburger the night before the race, maybe not the best solution, but I saw in the menu they have chicken. Yeah, they had a chicken sandwich. So I'm like, excellent. This is great. I'm gonna get chicken and I am getting some cheese fries. Like I'm I'm making myself happy. I'm but I'm making a half half smart choice. We get this sandwich. Let me just end it with it was really good. It was not grilled though. It was the most fried, deep fried sandwich I'd ever had in my whole life. But it was delicious, right? It was, yeah. Was it better than the the ⁓ Shake Shack Burger? No, not burger. The burger is better. Yeah, the burger is way better. Yep. Burger, in my opinion, is better than the chicken. So unfortunately, a little bit of a fail there. But on the way to the chicken sandwich situation, I had already made a bad choice. Right. And I knew what I was going to get for dessert. Yeah. Because I I earned it. The Great American Cookie Company. Yes, it sure did. We never eat that crap. Haven't had Great American Cookie Company in a decade. So let's do it the night before a race. That's right. I just for some reason, you know, when you see something and then it gets in your mind and then you're like, there's no other option. It was stressating. It was. ⁓ yeah, you're not supposed to do that, you know, like don't don't make emotional, you know, don't whatever, emotional eat, whatever. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm like, I'm done, I'm done. The traffic sucks. You know, I've been evacuated. Right. ⁓ I'm peopled out. Give me a double doozy. Sugar cookie, please. Yeah. That's what I did. Yeah. And so we're walking out to the garage and I said, Hey, but at least we had a healthy lunch. Didn't we have a healthy lunch? And you're like, No, we had Chipotle. So what a bad decision. ⁓ my gosh. All the way around. But that cookie was good. We car bloated for a marathon and ran a ten K. That's right. Yeah, we carbloaded for dopey. ⁓ okay. So we joked it earlier, but getting out of the parking lot was As bad as getting into the park. It was atrocious. Yes. I I didn't know it at the time, but there was a concert. ⁓ I knew it. You did. But I just wasn't thinking. I don't know. It was Run DM C and there was like fireworks show. All this stuff was happening in an hour from when we were trying to leave. So everyone was trying to get in. Yes. ⁓ my gosh. It was terrible. Yep. In hindsight, would you have just been like, let's just stay for the Run D ⁓ C concert? No. I don't know any Run DM C songs, do you? Yeah, no, I do. I just was thinking like can you sing one? ⁓ no, I'm not singing for you on the microphone. I thought you were gonna say something about we should have stayed in Atlanta. Yeah, but that had crossed my mind. The challenge is where do you stay? Because it's a point to point race. Right. Peace tree is. So this would be like the most helpful. We're finally we're saying something helpful. Yes, ⁓ other than just telling you what happened to us. So it's a point to point race. You start it. Phipps Plaza, Lennox Mall, that area in Buckethead, but you end at Piedmont Park six point two miles away. Right. So if you stay at the start line, great. But now at the finish, you have to get back to the start line. Right, right. Take Marta, have a friend, whatever, Uber, whatever. Or you stay at the finish line, but then at four in the morning, you gotta get to the start line. So we're like, we live an hour outside of the city, like let's just drive. You know, we took a our run club takes a bus. So we did that. Yeah, which that ended up being never mind. That's not even not even helpful. Okay. ⁓ okay, so we did actually finally get home. We did all the stuff. We need our kids where they needed it. We picked up Nicholas from somewhere. Like we got all the things. Yeah. And now we're like laying out our stuff at night. It's like 11 30 at night. Yeah. We're laying out our clothes. We're getting up at four a. Taking the old flat lay picture, you know. And yeah, I'm setting my alarm for 350. And I'm like, ⁓ no. ⁓ but I will say we got up the next morning, no problems. Like, Getting to our bus meetup or whatever. The bus ride was long, you know, and we because we got to the bus a little late, we had to we didn't sit together, we sat next to strangers. So, like no cuddling on the bus or anything like that on the way up. ⁓ which actually worked out. Now I know you you didn't have a chatty person next to you and you you didn't have as fun much fun as I did, but I ended up with a chatty person next to me and I'm a morning chatty person. ⁓ I know. I listened to y'all's entire conversation. So we chatted. From the minute we left all for an hour all the way up there. So I got a chatty person. You don't like to chat in the morning. No. And so normally I'm like kind of sitting there, just kind of like ready to talk. You know, and you're like, it's early. So I had a chatty buddy. Okay. So we get there. Chuck, our friend from home, was running his first official race. Yep. 10K. ⁓ and so he ⁓ was on the bus with us. Yeah. He we walked to the start line, we went to his corral, hung out with him for a while, and that was just fun, right? It was super chill. I would say the peach tree. start line for two years in a row is super relaxed. I mean you just walk up to your corral, they sort of check your bib, you know. Right. And I'm sure Somebody's squashing into you. Yeah. I mean it just both times. I thought maybe last year was a fluke. We just just started the race. There's not it does not have that run Disney like, let me get every inch forward I can to get away from the balloon ladies. Like it doesn't have that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At least not for for the the corrals we've started in. No. I don't I I don't know if it's like that in the back or not. So any start line thoughts or anything? We ran into people from various parts of our local. We talked about like fifty-five thousand people there or something. I like literally look to my right and my friend's son is standing next to me. And then I look over and I'm like, Well, there's Cherie. Like crazy. Yeah, she's like, Hey, Eureka, and I'm like, Who are you talking to? And at the same time, I'm like, Robbie, hey! And so how wild, you know? Totally agree. Robbie lives two hours from us and I'm like, Hey, bud! Yeah, like so that was cool. Yep. ⁓ I guess that's the benefit of doing a race in your city. Yeah, totally. And so ⁓ cool. Yeah. So the race started and we went. And ⁓ in terms of running, any notable moments or anything you liked. I mean, I said it was a point to point race. You literally run down Peachtree Road for six miles. ⁓ they had the whole four lane road wide open. Any notable things about the run? Well, several things. ⁓ right. Yeah. Okay. Where do you want to start okay, like totally huge party? People giving out random stuff on the side of the road, like Jell O shots followed by sprinkling of holy water. That's right. ⁓ the college students with the beer. With the keg. Yep, yep. You if you want to drink some beers, like there's no shortage of that. I don't know if that's a smart idea on a ⁓ red flag advisory, but you know, whatever. You do you. Yeah. ⁓ what else? ⁓ we got popsicles, we king of pops at the end. That was amazing. Mile five, right at mile five. King of Pops, which is I think it's an Atlanta thing. Yeah. I think it's from here. I think there are all the sporting events and whatever. Yeah. And I Delicious popsicle. I pay I pay six bucks for those popsicles. I know. At a at an event. Right. And they're handing them out. Yeah. And I was like, yeah. And it was like a super fun, like, way to keep yourself preoccupied. Like for the last mile. Three quarters of a mile. I was sucking on a popsicle. Yeah. Yeah. And it was really great. Yeah. It was fun. ⁓ my favorite thing, of course, are the like spray stations. Yes. So like not a mist, like a gush, like a water gusher spray. ⁓ And you can more powerful than a sprinkler. Right. Yeah. Not but I got I like to run really close so I get like completely soaked. Yes. Which is good to keep you cool till the next mile, but not so great once you get on the bus. I smelled on the bus. ⁓ it was gross. Yeah. For sure. ⁓ but yeah, no, that's those were awesome. ⁓ of course, our favorite part do you want to talk about? Sure. ⁓ go ahead. ⁓ you want me to talk about it? Yeah, yeah. Through mile three? Yeah. Yeah. So we ⁓ we've had Will and Katie on the podcast. And Will is, if you remember the story, He's the one that had the accident. He fell off of, you know, the back of his truck or whatever, landed wrong and ended up, you know, paralyzed, re you know, rehab, all that at the Shepherd Center, right? Which is at mile three on Biscourse. And they they, if you've heard that episode, he sat in a wheelchair looking, cheering on runners two years ago. And then last year did all had done all the effort and rehab and whatever in order to walk that race last year. Yeah. So he came on and told that story. So we developed a relationship with Will and Katie just through text and whatever, and we know their story. And holy cow, we came up to the Shepherd Center and they're all like they're not there. They're they're having a baby. You know what I mean? They're she's pregnant, and that's awesome. So they couldn't run this year. Yeah. But we came up and all those people that are overcoming hard things are sitting in their chairs and they're cheering us on. ⁓ my gosh. Overwhelmed. So it was a moment. without without being too emotionally sappy here. Like I'm I I said out loud, if Will can do what he did, we can run up this hill. And honestly, I just praying for Will and Katie as we go up this hill that they'd be blessed and continue to be on the journey that they're on. And they wouldn't quit and they would keep pouring into their kids the way they are. And then I literally just started cheering for the guys in the chairs and men and women in the chairs. Yeah. Because they were cheering for us. And I'm like, don't even Right. Like like yes. But are you kidding me right now? Yeah. Like you're doing the hard thing. Yeah. And I didn't have that perspective last year. Last year it was like, ⁓ cool, there's a hospital here. And this year, with a personal connection, I've made eye contact with somebody. You know, that I I wanted to like pull over and be like, our friend was where you are now. And now and then he ran and like just keep, you know, and yeah, it was so emotional. And a lot of people walk that hill. Yes. Not to like not to pat ourselves on the back, but I was like Knowing what we know, like just from Will and Katie's story, I was like, there's no way I'm walking this. Like we are running all the way up to the top of this hill. Yep. ⁓ for every one of these people that's sitting here in these chairs, you know. Correct. So it was very emotional. Uh-huh. Yeah. Y'all, thanks for sharing your story with us. I mean, you you've you indirectly, whatever, changed our perspective totally on a whole bunch of things. And that hill means something totally different now. Yeah. They used to call it Cardiac Hill. Now it's called Hope Hill. Yeah. And for us, that is Will and Katie Hill. That's right. We love it. Yep. So we'll be thinking of you every time we do this now. Yep. ⁓ okay. So anything else about the course? You finished strong. You got a holler hype, they kind of pushed you hand. Yes. Well, I actually was gonna talk about the finish line photo. Yeah. So they do this mean thing to you. It's sort of like you saying that the choirs at the end when they are not. No, they're not, yeah. They're still you still got like 0.2 miles. Right. You're like, it's just around the corner. I'm like, no, it's not, you liar. Uh-huh. Anyways, they do the same thing to you at the Peachtree. So they have like a fake. Finish line. They do. With the photographers like up in lifts over the street. And this is huge banner. So it looks from a distance just like the finish line. Yeah. And it's not how far is it after that that it's probably point three miles, point four. I felt like it was longer than that. I felt like it was like at least half a mile. I think so. I don't know, but but we knew that it wasn't the end. But we forgot end last year. Yeah, and we forgot to tell Chuck. And so he's like, I come in like super hot. And then it's like, ⁓ just kidding. That's not the end. What it is, is it's a huge banner. It's red. Yeah. And it looks like the finish line. And it says smile, you're on camera. Yeah, yeah. But you don't know that until you're like past it. Right. And even when the first time when you do go under it, you're like, well, great. I like I still think you still it looks like the finish line. There's a there's a timing strip of that. Is there? So was it at mile five? No, because mile five is when we got our popsicles. I know it wasn't. Yeah. Okay. There's some sort of it, it there's something about the You know what? It might be yeah, it might be ⁓ some sort of decorative thing where it says like the name of the race or something on it so that it's in your pictures. Yeah you know what I mean? That's probably what it is. It looks like the finish. Yeah. And it is not. Correct. You yes. You go through this and you're like, wait a minute, what? And you keep going and then you turn left and you think, well, then this is the nope. Nope. You keep going. Yeah. But anyways, back to what you were starting to say about the holler hype. So one of our Patreon members, Sean, ⁓ he sent me a holler hype and he like it was a really nice message. And at the end he goes, Erica, just do me one favor. He's like, I want you to cross that finish line before AJ beat him to the finish line. That's right. So we were gonna do this funny photo where I like turned around and waved at you, but it didn't turn out very good. But you did get an awesome picture of me crossing the finish line. The actual finish line. So thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. It turned out to be a good picture. Thank you for all the holler hypes. Those were ⁓ my gosh, those were amazing. I know. It was so much fun. It felt I mean, really, like because we've developed relationships with y'all now, like it felt like friends were with us. Yeah, legitimately. Yeah. And that combined with there are a lot of spectators on this course. Yes. ⁓ throughout the whole thing. And dogs. Lots of dogs. ⁓ my gosh. Every time we'd be like, ⁓ look, there's a dog. Yes. And so yes, there were lots of dogs, lots of spectators, lots of fun signs, lots of power-ups. Yes, totally. Lots of beer. I'm just not brave enough. You know what I mean? One to take something. Like that from a stranger, yeah. In a wide open cup. I don't know where their hands have been. Like, I don't know anything about them. You know what I mean? Yeah. We're in Atlanta. You know, I'm like, I don't know. But if you're there to party, I guess. Yep. So yeah, the race is super fun. Like, like if you're going for time, I don't know how well, you know, because it's it's pretty crowded. It is. ⁓ but if you want to have a race with a with a cool vibe and and all that, and normally a cool t-shirt, then awesome. Yeah. We Cross the finish line, they they give you peaches. Georgia peaches. Yep. Love that. Surprisingly, like a really great snack after you've run. And of course a banana and a water and a a bag of stuff. You know, and the the finish area is a little chaotic, but you know. You can go buy merch and you can do all the finish line things. Lots of photo opportunities. We didn't hang there very long. We met up with Chuck once he finished. ⁓ and we got our medals and all that. By the way, if you do the peach tree, you don't get a medal. You can buy one if you'd like. Right. And so ⁓ this year's medal is pretty cool. Yes, it's very cool. So ⁓ we picked up our medals, ⁓ had to wait around a little bit for the bus that was taking us back. Yeah. ⁓ and is so we're sitting there and we open up the bag to see what our t shirt looks like. And I look at them like, What is that? And I pull out the shirt, and it's the most hideously lime yellow. It's a terrible shade of yellow. Limes aren't yellow. Limes are green. ⁓ lemon. Lemon yellow. I don't even know if lemon describes it. It's awful. It's not great. So you cannot get this t-shirt unless you finish. Right. And they don't tell you what it looks like beforehand. Yes. Like you you find out when you get yours. Right. And ⁓ terrible design. I know we're an audio. situation right now. I had I I w I wish I could tell you. The backlash that they're getting right now online. Uh-huh. Just go look up 2026 Atlanta peach tree and you don't even have to finish like t shirt or whatever. You don't have to finish that just populate. It will populate on the thousands of comments on this hideous t shirt that I will probably never wear. No. Well at least I have something to mow the lawn in. You know what I mean? Change the oil. Yeah. Like it's it's awful. Yeah. Like it's yellow and green. And ⁓ doing my little bit of research online about what people think about the shirt to make sure it wasn't just me. Right, right, right. Four thoughts. Uh-huh. You ready? Yes, tell me. First thing someone said is all you had to do for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the country was make a red, white, and blue shirt. Right. That's all you had to do. Right. On the fourth of July. It didn't even have to like be an amazing design. Right. It all it had to do was be red, white, and blue and say twenty twenty six. Right. That's it. Yeah. And you missed it completely. Right, right, right. Yellow and green. Yes. Second thought is the ⁓ American flag. American flag on it is backwards. Which is not okay. Uh-huh. You know, it's hung vertically. It's backwards, legitimately backwards. It has the declaration of independence on it. Not really, though, on Independence Day. It says we the people, which is the Constitution, not the Declaration of Independence. Right. And for some reason, it says Atlanta G dot A dot. What the heck is that? You don't abbreviate states with dots. Who who designed this shirt? I mean, I'm I'm Mr. Positive. Right. All the time on most things. And this is the worst thing I've ever seen. It's not great. The worst misses, yeah. All in one shirt I've ever seen. ⁓ huh. It's awful. Yeah. I don't know how nobody caught all of that. I don't know. Also, they changed sponsors this year. Right. Northside Hospital is now the sponsor. Yes. You bought this amazing tank top at the expo. You come home with it, you lay it out on the bed, and you're like, here's the what I got at the expo. I'm like, that's so cute. Why does that have the previous sponsor's name on it? Uh-huh. Right on the front. It says Atlanta Journal Constitution, Peachtree Road Race. Yeah. It is not hosted by them at all. Right. I'm like, what has happened here? ⁓ yeah. They have they have missed on so many things. It is wild. Anyway. You'll never see me wear the yellow thing. I mean, you might when you see like I might work out in it at the gym. No, I probably not. I'm not going to. I don't it's uncomfortable too. The fabric is gross. Yeah. I just I d I just don't even know. No. ⁓ so we finally and you know, we leave. Yeah. We meet up with our bus where you know our our run club where we live. They take charter buses and we go and we get on the bus and yay, it's air conditioning. ⁓ we all smell. Yeah. You know, like that kind of vibe. You know, which is normal on a bus after a race. Right. But This parking lot we were parked in, it took an hour to get out of, which we did not have that experience last year. So this whole time I'm thinking, should we have taken the train? You know, like the whole time. But once we got on the road, like it was fine. It was fine once we got on the road. But just getting out of that area is hard. So like I I bring that up like one point. Like if you have a parked car or someone picking you up or Uber, whatever, like that is the sixty thousand people just finished a race. Yes, correct. And they were telling everybody because it was getting hotter. Please leave. Yeah. They were I my phone was blowing up of notifications from the race. Right. Please leave. It's too hot. Yes, yes. And so anyway. ⁓ real fast, good and the bad. So we we that was the timeline. Real fast, good and the bad of this race, right? What that even if we've already mentioned it, just what are the good things that you have? I just love that it's like a fun party vibe that you can come run whether you are like an elite athlete or you want to walk the entire thing slowly with friends and just have a good old party. Yep. Good things you enjoyed seeing on the course? Definitely. Hope Hill. Yes. and yeah, we've already said like I like the water spires and the bobscles. Yeah. And the dogs. And the dogs seeing all the cute dogs. ⁓ you know, one thing next year I'm gonna do dog count. I didn't do that this year. I should. Should. Yeah. One one of the things that I ⁓ had thought of as a good, but it wasn't necessarily the race, but it was the race expo, was they did like a tribute wall thing for Jeff Dalloway. That's amazing. And people could sign it, right? And ⁓ we our names are on there and ⁓ we got a picture with it and it was just awesome. And I talked to a guy who was signing it at the same time as me. And he's like, he pulled up pictures of him with Jeff at a race ten years ago. And he's like, I wouldn't be running if it weren't for this man. Yeah. This is one of the thousands of thousands of thousands of thousands of runners that Jeff had an impact on. Who Jeff had an impact on. Totally. And will probably will you know, for forever. Yeah. So anyway, I really like that. Holler hypes were another positive. That was ⁓ my gosh. Those are always so much fun. Yeah. ⁓ the bad, I would say traffic in general is a bad, you know, like if you're coming to do this race, just pack your patience. Some dude came up like to check in at my ⁓ bib check-in when I was volunteering with his suitcases. Yeah. And he looked so stressed out. Yeah. And I said, ⁓ sir, this give me $50 to check that bag. And I was like messing with him, you know, like he was checking in for a flight. And he just he just his whole face distraught. He goes, Man, I've already been there. He's like, My family and I, like we had to Because of the weather, we got split up. They're in Charlotte trying to get here. Like I had to go standby just to get here to get our bibs. And he looks so stressed out. Yeah. You know what I mean? I'm like, I got you. Yeah you know, I got ⁓ all checked in, you know, whatever. But you just you just see the frustration with travel. Yeah. He's like, the Uber couldn't get anywhere near here. It dropped me like a mile away. Yeah. You know, and I just walked here with my suitcases. ⁓ my gosh. And so travel try you know, the ⁓ the traffic and travel around this race is hard. Yes. Like ⁓ I would say that's a that's a bad Anything else that was a bad t-shirt? The t-shirt. The weather. The weather. Yeah. I mean, you don't know. Atlanta in July. Yeah. It's hot. ⁓ yeah. Overall, then I would say the goods outweigh the bad. Yeah, for sure. Right. Yeah. Like I think that's kind of our bottom line in this race is you're gonna have to, and we did two years now in a row, you're gonna have to deal with all the people and the traffic and the smelly, you know, porta potties and all the all the things that come with doing a big, big race. Yeah. You know? Yeah. But when you're on the course, that hour and 10 minutes or hour and a half, whatever it takes you to do the race, that is worth it. Yeah, totally. You agree? It's very fun. Yes, for sure. Awesome. So are we signing up for the Peachtree Road race next year? Absolutely. And I'm just gonna like in my mind just not worry about what the t shirt looks like or anything. I'm just gonna assume that I'm doing it for the race experience. Next year we might need to stay down there though. You think so? Yeah. ⁓ finish line. ⁓ Really? I don't know. Just alleviate a little bit of the stress. Yeah. That that's a good point. Yeah. Awesome. All right. Well, this was our bonus episode on the peach tree. I don't have any other comments about the peach tree. I don't think you do either. No. ⁓ we're still totally gonna do it. If you had a great peach tree experience, awesome. If you didn't have a good one, give it another try. Cause it's it can be a really fun event. ⁓ you just gotta have the right perspective on it. ⁓ all right. So join us this week for our main episode with Riley Claremont. So excited for this. Gonna be awesome. That obviously ⁓ those main episodes come out on Wednesdays. ⁓ so you're gonna really love that one. And ⁓ if you don't mind, consider supporting the podcast. ⁓ we have our Patreon for certainly we call them the support crew. We do all kinds of bonus content for them. Please leave a review, follow us on all the Instagram stuff and whatever. And that's all I have to say, Erica. You wanna sign us off? Join us next week for another episode of One More Run the Podcast. Thanks for joining us for this episode of One More Run, the Podcast. If you like what we're up to, be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and follow us on Instagram. You can find links to all of that at hmerica.com.