Garcia Leads ASICS GTC-ELITE at Historic 50th Edition of Atlanta's Peachtree Road Race

Cristina McKnight, Victor Pataky, Joe Niemiec and Eddie Garcia after the 50th Peachtree Road Race 10K.

Eddie Garcia ran to a 21st place finish to lead ASICS Greenville Track Club-ELITE in the 50th running of Atlanta's Peachtree Road Race on the USA's birthday. After passing the first 5K in 14:48, Garcia's finishing time was 30:34 over the challenging 10-kilometer route on the Georgia capital's famous Peachtree Street. He was the 11th American finisher.

The field of participants was capped at just over 60,000. The race started under "yellow" conditions, which alerted the runners to use caution, due to the 75-degree temperature and high humidity at the 7:00 am start (6:50 am for the elite women). 

Despite with the cautionary conditions, Kenya's Rhonex Kipruto ran to a phenomenal course record of 27:01 to best the previous CR by three seconds and earn the $50,000 bonus on top of the $8,000 winner's prize. Nine of the top ten finishers were African. 

Garcia's teammates, Victor Pataky, Joe Niemiec and Cristina McKnight all placed within the top 30 men and women finishers, respectively. Pataky placed 25th with a time of 31:25 after placing 26th in 2018. Although slowing considerably after the first 5K, Niemiec finished his first Peachtree in 30th position with a time of 32:41. McKnight, who did not compete in college, was running in only her first 10K and placed 29th with a time of 36:08. She passed 5K in 17:32 before slowing somewhat on the second half hills. 

The women's course record was also broken as Brigid Kosgei ran an amazing 30:22 to also earn a $50,000 bonus on top of her first place winnings. The top six women were Africans. 

GTC-ELITE was established in 2012. The program produced four qualifiers for the 2016 USA Olympic Trials Marathon in Los Angeles and one qualifier for the 2019 Pam American Games Marathon in. Lima, Peru. The post-collegiate, Olympic development program is sponsored by ASICS, the 47-year-old Greenville Track Club, ScanSource, Joy Real Estate,   generous individual contributors and partnerships with Performance Therapy, Carolina Spine and Rehab, Boston Bill Sunglasses, Roll Recovery products, FinalSurge (on-line training log), The ATI Running Academy, ElliptiGO, NormaTec Recovery Boots, Cocoa Elite recovery products, Stryd Running, Coach Bob Williams Pace Calculator, DorsiFlex and Synergy Performance (mental performance).  The club is a proud and active member of both the Road Runners Club of America and  USATF.