Buddy Davis - Once is NOT Enough (Peachtree Road Race)

As per the lead photo, this is the real “Buddy” at the Real Buckhead 5K this spring.  Buddy Davis “grew up” in Milledgeville, Georgia, the middle child of three “stuck” between two sisters.  Buddy was self-proclaimed “good at tormenting them both”.  Buddy’s environment was modified at age eleven when the family relocated to rural Georgia.  Buddy’s father was a WWII veteran of the Pacific Theater, later working for Southern Bell and in civil service.  His mon stayed at home.  She had to deal with Buddy tormenting the girls!  Buddy became a “country boy” fishing, camping out and riding his bike anywhere he could.  His first run was the eight-mile trek from his home to that of a friend in Milledgeville on a dare with no vehicle or a bike that was not working.  This experience led Buddy years later to observe the Peachtree road Race on television and observing “I can do that”.   Buddy graduated from Baldwin High in 1980.  His rural roots eventually led him to go postal as a twenty-six-year to date rural letter carrier for the United States Postal Service.       

Buddy met his wife Laura in 1987 and they married the following year.  The union has produced two daughters, age twenty-seven and twenty-two respectively.  The oldest Brittany is married and resides in Kennesaw, GA with her sister Hannah graduating from Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville this June with a degree in exercise science.  Buddy and Laura moved in 2000 to the even quieter environment of Gray, GA.  Buddy’s involvement in the Gary community resulted in Buddy being asked to organize a road race in conjunction with the Day Lily Festival, now in its soon to be fourteenth year.  Buddy enjoys organizing the Day Lily Festival 5K “almost as much as running” in the race.  He keeps the “runner in mind in every detail of the race”, and credits this prospective in attracting runners from all over Georgia to the Day Llly Festival 5K.  As Buddy laments “too many races now, doesn’t do that anymore”.                  

After several years of entering the Peachtree Road Race lottery, Buddy received a number and ran the 1982 4^th of July 10K road race.  After participating in the Peachtree again in 1983 and 1984, Buddy ran his first non-Peachtree race, the Kaolin Kanter 10K in Sandersville, GA in 1984 placing first in his age group.  This was the motivation that put Buddy over the top and he has been consistently running in middle Georgia since when not delivering the mail.  The Peachtree has become a family tradition with the three Davis females accompanying Buddy in his thirty-five-year streak of Peachtree Road Races. Buddy has also competed in hundreds of 5K and 10K races in his thirty-five years of running.  His PRs   were achieved, like most of us, when we were younger. He can boast of an impressive 16:48 5K, 35:53 10K, 1:20:19 half marathon, and 3:20 full marathon.  Buddy can still huff a low twenty minute 5K at age 54.

Among Buddy’s favorite races, other than the Peachtree, are the Torture Trail 10K in Eatonton, the Christmas Rush 8K in Madison, the Brasstown Baldbuster 5K, and the Hogpen Hill Climb in Helen, GA.  Last September Buddy ran in the Blue Ridge relay on a team of twelve runners in a 208-mile relay race from Virginia to Ashville, North Carolina.  Unlike delivering the mail, Buddy experienced thirty hours of running and riding in a van with little to no sleep.  Notwithstanding Buddy’s avid race participation, he still enjoys being outdoors working in the yard or in the mountains of North Georgia.  Buddy, like most of us, laments races that are no longer available. His favorite in that category is the Sock Trot in Union Point, where runners received a race golf shirt and a BBQ lunch for $8. 

Bob checking out from the back of the pack.  Watch for the profile on Winder’s Sharon Williams and the profile of Pastor Mike Taylor.