ATLANTA -- This year's AJC Peachtree Road Race started a half-hour earlier than in previous years to accommodate the anticipated hot and humid conditions for the race.
On Monday, race marshals had established code yellow conditions for the race, with the expectation of the likely very humid conditions at starting time.
When the wheelchair racers kicked off from Buckhead, they didn't disappoint everyone as they set a fast early pace down Peachtree Road.
Nineteen-year-old Daniel Romanchuk, winner of last year's wheelchair race, won the wheelchair competition handily with a time of 18:39.42, nearly eclipsing a 14-year-old course record. In the women's wheelchair division, last year's winner, Tatyana McFadden came in a surprise second place to Susannah Scaroni with a time of 22:49.05.
"It's a wonderful race to be at," Romanchuk said. "Great organizers, volunteers -- all around, it's a wonderful race."
After the wheelchair division rocketed down Peachtree, it was time for the men's and women's elite division runners to push off.
As they set a solid pace down Peachtree Road, the humid conditions made themselves very evident across the board.
Entering Piedmont Park, 43-year-old Peachtree masters champion Bernard Lagat won the elite men's division with a time of 28:45, while his cousin, Haron Lagat, finished three seconds behind him in second place.
"My training has been good since March. I never have missed a day; Been really grinding all those workouts with my training partners in Arizona, and it paid off today," Bernard Lagat said after he crossed the finish line. "Let me tell you -- nothing better than getting this on the Fourth of July!"
Thirty-four-year-old Stephanie Bruce won the women's elite division with a time of 32:21, beating out her training partner and last year's champion Aliphine Tulimuk.
PHOTOS | 49th Annual AJC Peachtree Road Race
"Having trained with Aliphine, I know she's one of the toughest runners in the country," Bruce said. "She's been winning national titles all over the place, but I just told myself give yourself a chance in the last 1,000. I know it's gonna hurt really bad, but she's hurting too."
After the elite runners made their way down the course, nearly 60,000 runners of all levels began to make their way in waves down Peachtree Road, taking in the 6.2 mile-long course toward Piedmont Park as part of the world's largest 10-kilometer road race.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms ran her first race since her election to the city's highest office, and participated in a fundraiser with rapper Jeezy in a fundraiser for his Street Dreamz Foundation and the Mayor's Youth Scholarship Program, along with the Atlanta Track Club's Kilometer Kids' program.
One of the most coveted items for finishers each year is the AJC Peachtree Road Race t-shirt, which is handed out to each race finisher. This year's t-shirt designer, Michael Martinez, actually learned that his design was selected while he was running the race itself.
"I didn't know until about mile 5, that I had won," Martinez told 11Alive's Jerry Carnes. "I wanted to capture Independence Day, the Fourth of July. I wanted to capture the route -- Lenox Square, Peachtree Road, Cardiac Hill and Piedmont Park. I just wanted to capture everything about the race."
By 9 a.m., the alert level was raised to a Code Red, due to the increasing heat and humidity level, which forced some runners to slow down their pace.
Many people running the race do so in costumes, some of them notably patriotic, in celebration of the Independence Day holiday. Others are just happy to run the race among their friends and neighbors from around metro Atlanta.
PHOTOS | The outfits & people of the 49th AJC Peachtree Road Race
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