Photo by Steve Thrasher.
Ten years ago, in July 2016, Bill Thorn was running his 47th consecutive Peachtree Road Race, the 10-kilometer race that runs from Buckhead to Midtown every July 4. He had been running in the race since it first started in 1970 and hadn’t missed one.
In his first year, he was one of just 110 runners to finish the inaugural race. By his 47th, more than 50,000 people crossed the finish line.
“I’m just thankful that I am able to live this long and still be able to complete this race,” Thorn, then 86 years old, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I used to be able to fluff it off as no problem. But it is tough, and if I didn’t do what I did every day, I couldn’t do it.”
What he did every day was a workout regimen he followed just about as religiously as he followed his Christian faith.
“You know if he doesn’t work out on his normal day, you know there’s something wrong,” Thorn’s daughter Cheryl Thrasher told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2023. “Like, really wrong. I wish I was that dedicated to working out and all of that. That is something that is rare and is admirable, but almost obsessive.”
The 2016 race was far from Thorn’s last; he went on to run another six races before he hung up his racing shoes at the age of 91 after the 2022 race. By the time he was done with all 53, he had completed races with a sprained ankle, while battling cancer, and while his heel gushed from an open wound caused by an experimental shoe. He pushed through every time.
“The Lord allowed me to (run 53 Peachtrees), and I feel strongly that he looked over me as I did it,” Thorn told the AJC in 2023.
His legendary status earned him the nickname “Iron Man of the Peachtree.”
“Bill was a fixture of Atlanta’s running community and a living part of the history of the Peachtree Road Race,” read a statement issued by the Atlanta Track Club.
In 2023, the first race Thorn didn’t run in, he rode in a BMW convertible ahead of the men’s elite race as Grand Marshal. Thousands of runners and spectators celebrated the man whom they had watched conquer the remarkable streak that inspired generations.
Beyond the Peachtree, Thorn was one of the most accomplished high school football, track and cross-country coaches in Georgia history. Across a 65-year coaching career, including decades at the Christian school he helped found in 1989, Landmark Christian School, he helped teams capture 42 state championships and shaped the lives of countless young athletes along the way. He taught not only by instruction, but by living example.
“He just wanted to pour into them life lessons and to realize what they could do if they put in the work,” Thrasher told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on October 22, the day after Thorn died. “I think that’s what I want him to be known for. I’m just so proud. We were happy to share him with everybody.”
A celebration of life for Thorn will be held Sunday, November 1, at 2 p.m. in the gymnasium at Landmark Christian School, 50 SE Broad Street in Fairburn. The family asks attendees to RSVP online. In lieu of flowers, they suggest donations in his honor to Southwest Christian Care, Landmark Christian School, or Berachah Bible Church.
