Inaugural ‘ Peachtree Corners Decathlon’ obstacle course event invites local athletes to race

Decathlon Dates and Times:

Saturday, Nov. 6, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Town Green Path to Fitness, 5140 Town Center Boulevard

Awards Ceremony:

Monday, Nov. 8, 6:30 p.m.

Anderby Brewing, 110 Technology Parkway, Suite 200

Registration $20 peachtreecornersga.gov/residents/ptc-decathlon-2021

Ambitious athletic folks are invited to join the City’s inaugural Peachtree Corners Decathlon, a Nov. 6 competition based on the local “Path to Fitness” obstacle course.

The Decathlon will be the first City-run event in its nine-year history and matches its motto of innovation, according to City Councilmember Alex Wright, who came up with the idea. He notes that footraces are “a dime a dozen” across the metro area. “But how many cities have a Decathlon? Probably zero because they don’t have an asset like this,” he said.

The Path to Fitness is a series of exercise stations that opened earlier this year at the Town Green. The Decathlon will consist of a timed run of eight of those stations, plus a rowing machine and a third-of-a-mile run. It’s partly inspired by a nationwide phenomenon called the Spartan Race, the basic concept of which may be familiar from the reality TV show “American Ninja Warrior.”

Wright and City Manager Brian Johnson worked on the Path to Fitness concept. Johnson, a former U.S. Army Ranger, pushed for designs that were more challenging and a bit more like the military obstacle courses that have partly informed the athletic version.

“When we initially built it, we had no idea if anyone would use it,” said Wright of the Path to Fitness. He says it’s been a hit — though the biggest users have been older children, who are allowed to do so with supervision, but are not the target audience. “But the point is, it became a real attraction,” says Wright, and the City believes it’s another boost to nearby businesses as families come to visit.

The Path to Fitness and the new Decathlon event both drew inspiration from Wright’s experience in workout groups around town and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in sending more people outdoors for exercise more often.

A longtime runner, Wright was introduced to Spartan races several years ago by a friend named David Bradford. Wright agreed to join the team in the sometimes grueling event. “I remember thinking, ‘I’m never going to do it again,’” Wright recalled. But then after a month or so, “I was like, I’m kind of intrigued.”

Unlike the solitary sport of running, the obstacle races were team events, which appealed to Wright, a Navy veteran. “Come to find out, I really enjoyed the camaraderie part of the groups,” he said. “It’s not exactly like being in the military, but it does have that [aspect where] you’re in a group of people doing something together, [and] to a certain extent have a common goal. And it’s not like work where it’s just about money.”

Another attraction was the feeling of accomplishment and confidence. “I had no clue how to climb a rope,” said Wright. “There’s this thing that I have no idea how to do … but through persistence or assistance from your friends, you mastered the thing. And you can apply that to something at work or a relationship or whatever it might be.”

Wright discussed the notion of a City-run obstacle course internally for some time. But the fire was lit under it by COVID. Pre-pandemic, Wright and his friends would work out at the Robert D. Fowler Family YMCA and the playground in Berkeley Park. But COVID shuttered those for long periods, and more people in general were seeking outdoor activity during the lockdowns. Those drove City leaders to make the Path to Fitness a reality and expand its users.

“A lot of those friendships just formed organically through getting together just a couple times a week, and at one point it became almost daily,” said Wright. “When the virus came, it was like, ‘I gotta get outside or I’m gonna strangle somebody.’”

“The virus changed things and sometimes it could be for the good,” he says. “Sometimes good things can come from bad things.”

As for the Decathlon concept, that also came from workout days at the Y. Wright says a member named Mark Metz several years ago organized a 10-event, station-based “Decathlon” there as a playground fundraiser. Combining that with the Spartan race concept led to the Peachtree Corners version.

The Decathlon events include: wall climb; the “bender,” a kind of ladder climb; rowing machine; rope climb; box jump; rope traverse; “multi rig,” a series of rings and bars; sandbag carry; burpees, an exercise involving pushups and jumping; and a third-of-a-mile run.

The event will run 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Unlike road races, where everyone goes at once, it will have rolling start times for individuals every five minutes. That also means the slots for participants are limited to 84. Participants must be 18 or older.

The City will give awards for winners in men’s, women’s and men/women over-40 categories.

The City is funding the event, mostly using internal resources with the only new spending being T-shirts and publicity. The registration fee is $20, partly to ensure that participants feel committed to show up and partly to cover costs. Besides entry, the fee gets participants a T-shirt and food and drink at the awards ceremony at Anderby Brewing.

That ceremony will be held two days later. Wright says that partly because the rolling start times mean many competitors won’t want to hang around all day after finishing. And Mondays are a slower night for the brewery, so it’s intended as a “win-win.”

Wright encourages anyone interested in participating to try out the Path to Fitness first. “You definitely need to practice if you’re not familiar with some of the obstacles,” he says. Each station on the path has a QR code that links to a YouTube video showing how to properly use it.