So the couple came up with a different plan: take the family on an amazing running adventure while exploring a new place with natural beauty, fascinating history and local culinary specialities.
Everything will become more familiar.
The Colemans plan to run races in every county in Georgia — all 159 of them — and recently reached their 101st county with the Good Hope Coffee Run in Walton County.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Beginning their journey in the spring of 2016, the family’s races have taken them to the ruins of an American Indian mound in Early County, Holy Spirit Monastery in Rockdale County and the Okefenokee Swamp in Charlton County.
They have enjoyed small town festivals that can only be found in Georgia, such as the Fitzgerald-Ben Hill County Wild Chicken Festival, the Worth County Grits Festival, the Taylor County Strawberry Festival and the Vidalia Onion Festival in Toombs County.
All the while, the family bonded as they ran, visiting different parts of the state from the majestic Blue Ridge Mountains to miles of coastline, wildlife refuges and along the Providence Valley in Stewart County, the 42nd county.
The participants mostly ran in 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) races and won multiple medals as well as local prizes, including a bag of Vidalia onions (Toombs County), a bottle of sugar cane syrup (Decatur County), a piece of handmade pottery (Crawford County) and a Santa Claus bobblehead doll (Hall County).
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
“It's a lot of fun, and as a parent it feels like a life hack,” says John Coleman, 42. “We're always told it keeps our kids healthy and allows us to spend more quality time with them. We go on little trips with the goal of running a race, but it's actually so much more. We end up exploring and seeing a lot of places we would never have seen otherwise.”
John was a longtime runner and former captain of his high school cross country team, and little by little the rest of his family became interested in running as well.
Ashley Coleman, now 39, said she was a “lifelong lazy person” until she decided to run for office after her second daughter, Libby, was born in 2015.
The first race was held in Decatur, within walking distance of their home: a “Beat the Streets” 5K with every runner receiving a free Pete the Cat T-shirt.
Credit: Custom
Credit: Custom
Ashley and John run most races with their three children: Abby, 12, Libby, 9, and James, 5, who one of their parents pushes in a jogging stroller (they take turns running). John Coleman's son, Callan, 18, from a previous relationship, also runs in some of the races.
They have run an average of 12 races a year, but their pace has fluctuated due to pregnancies, injuries and the COVID pandemic, which has caused many races to be canceled.
The AJC Peachtree Road Race was the largest race ever held in Georgia, with tens of thousands of runners participating. Fulton County, third place; Other times, they have raced with a small group of about eight people, including four runners from the Coleman family.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
So are there races taking place in every county in Georgia?
So far so good. But finding races isn't always easy. And there's a bit of a strategy there. They look for opportunities to host two races in a weekend in neighboring counties. They also spread the races across the state, sparing some counties, including some in metro Atlanta, where the races are easier to find near the end.
They scoured running and community websites looking for races across the state, and when they learned that a first-of-its-kind race might be happening in Calhoun County, a rural town of fewer than 6,000 people in southwest Georgia, they couldn't pass up the opportunity.
“They said, 'Put the printing on hold and clear your schedule,' and we were able to get there,” he said.
So last fall they drove to the rural county, the 87th on their journey, for a “Slime” run on school grounds. The Coleman family was one of the few runners.
“Everyone was so friendly,” John Coleman said, “good, down-to-earth Southern hospitality. Everyone was excited that we were visiting their little town. I remember they literally gave us their spare clothes to wipe the slime off of because we were totally unprepared for such an onslaught of slime.”
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
Coleman thinks it will take the family another two years to complete a race in all 159 counties. While they may not be able to find a race in every county, they are prepared to organize races county by county. If necessary.
“Abby “My daughter absolutely loves it, but it didn't happen overnight,” he said of his daughter. “She's had her ups and downs with running but has made steady progress.”
“Now she has grown into a leader on her middle school cross country team, and running a race at 7:30 in the morning doesn't seem like a big deal,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for her to learn how to face challenges with a positive attitude and creativity.”
She's also gotten faster and winning races. In April, Abby won the Big Marsh 5K in Americus, placing first among all female runners. She ran the 5K in 22 minutes, 47 seconds. She beat her mother for the first time, who placed third.
The project has taken them to areas of the state that tourists might not expect, including struggling small towns with boarded-up buildings, yet they continue to find something uniquely Georgia at nearly every stop the effort visits.
They always check the Explore Georgia website before visiting a new county, and Ashley Coleman recalls that's when they learned about the Ben Hill County Vintage Kitchen Museum.
“I told my husband about it, and he said, 'That's the most boring story I've ever heard in my life.' But then we went to a festival and met this woman who was telling the story. I convinced him to go, and this woman had a huge warehouse. She had several rooms, and each room was decorated with appliances from a different era, and they were all different. … My husband was blown away. He ended up hugging her and saying, 'That's the coolest thing.'”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
“This running project has been so great for our family,” Ashley Coleman said. “We've spent quality time together, explored new parts of the state, seen hidden gems we wouldn't have seen otherwise, met amazing people, and improved our physical and mental health through running. We've completed 101 counties with 58 to go.”
After they reach their goal of racing in every county, the Colemans plan to keep racing throughout Georgia. But they'll also take on another challenge: As their kids grow older and become more experienced runners, it may be time to start racing in every state in the country.