ATLANTA — “Eat my dust, slowpokes!”

That’s what everyone trailing behind 91-year-old Dr. Edwin Swords read on the back of his T-shirt as he crossed the finished line of the Peachtree Road Race Wednesday morning.

“It got a lot of attention,” Swords said.

The retired Canton dentist is the oldest person to complete the race this year. Even after feeling sick the previous evening, the self-described “active, outdoors person” said he was able to push through the race.

“Quite honestly, I hadn’t been eating properly,” Swords said Friday. “I was just wiped out Tuesday.”

“But I ate some high-energy bars and electrolytes and that got me perked up again,” he said.

After re-energizing, the avid hiker was able to complete his 16th Peachtree Road Race since age 76.

“I missed one year in between,” he said. His daughter, Debra Swords Goodwin, said her father didn’t have a bit of trouble making it to the finish line.

“He got in that race and all of a sudden, everything pulled together and clicked,” Goodwin said.

Though Swords didn’t give his exact finishing time, he said he was stopped by at least 200 people throughout the 10K who wanted to take pictures with him.

“I was the most photographed thing in the race,” Swords joked.

Swords, who began his Canton dental practice in 1951, said his many supporters would compliment him and give him high-fives.

“Some of them got a picture with me last year,” he said.

Goodwin said the couple who approached her father again this year told her they have Swords’ photograph hanging in their kitchen as inspiration. She said she wanted to cry tears of joy when they told her their story.

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, how sweet,’” Goodwin said. “He’s a fighter. He had a terrible horse accident in 1999 and was in critical condition for seven or eight months. It’s just a miracle he even made it.”

Goodwin said she and her sister, Denise Swords, accompanied their father the whole way.