The Peachtree City Running Club hosted the 43rd annual Road Runners Club of America Convention recently.

More than 450 people attended the three-day event, which included workshops, an expo, morning trail runs, an 8K race and awards banquet.

Workshops ranged from a course to certify coaches to an all-star panel with Olympians Ralph Boston, Don Kardong, Jeff Galloway and Frank Shorter. A running expo coincided with the workshops and was home to 21 exhibitors, including a new RRCA sponsor, Awards.com. Other exhibitors included Superfeet, Lasalle Bank Chicago marathon, and Frank Shorter Sports.

PTCRC members donned peach-colored running shirts to guide convention attendees on a morning trail run around the lake, sponsored by New Balance. The running club also organized a “fun run” which was part of the first night's activities. Participants were not told of the distance or direction and ran until they came to PTCRC volunteers in their trademark peach shirts. The guides directed participants to the finish, where runners estimated the number of feet traveled and won based on the closeness to the actual distance.

Saturday morning, the Atlanta Track Club organized the inaugural Peaches and Pines 8K, and following the race, runners could attend a yoga session to stretch out their stiff muscles.

The entertainment-packed weekend ended with a sold-out awards banquet with keynote speaker Katherine Switzer, who also was announced as the 1999 RRCA/NYRRC Fred Lebow Women's Running Award recipient.

Jim Stasaitis, of the Utica Road Runners Club, was another winner at the banquet, when Switzer drew his raffle ticket for a Steve Prefontaine leather bomber jacket, a prop used in the movie “Pre.” Stasaitis plans to donate the jacket to the Prefontaine Memorial scheduled to open at the National Distance Running Hall of Fame in Utica, N.Y., this fall.

The convention marked the last hoorah for President Don Kardong as he passed the torch to Vice President Freedi Carlip. Beverly Coville, RRCA Southern regional director, will fill Carlip's spot as vice president and Scott Christopher will succeed her.

The Albuquerque Road Runners will host the 44th annual RRCA Convention May 2-6, 2001 in Albuquerque, N.M.



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