Richmond Atlantic Region XTerra Championships

Richmond, VA

June 13-14

By Mike Hebe

My second XTerra event was my first focus race of the year, and with good reason. This event is one of eight World Championship qualifiers and it is expanded points for the National series.

The swim is unlike anything I have ever experienced. The heavy rains made for a VERY unpredictable swim. The swim goes directly across the James River, then turns and head upstream for 200 meters. If that was not enough we then had to get out of the water and run 200 meters through the woods, then get back into the water and keep swimming. This is where the currents were the strongest, and you had to aim upriver to avoid missing the buoy 200 meters downriver. The swim went well for me and I caught a lot of swimmers from the prior wave and ended up 7th going into the bike. After the swim adventure it was off to some sweet singletrack, much like that in Swatara State Park back in PA. The bike is my strong suit and my Cannondale 29er did not let me down. I rolled the fastest 40+ split and the sixth fastest amateur time, even while having to fight through dozens of racers in very tight quarters. Off the bike I knew that I was not in the lead. I also knew that I needed to be in the lead if I were to win this event. As I left transition to start the run I saw that I was right behind another competitor. We started the run and he began to gap me a bit, but I kept telling myself to run my race and my legs would come. Turns out they did, I caught and passed the runner in about one mile and held a small gap as we hit an eighty foot vertical climb up a set of two dozen railroad ties. After that I felt good and kept the pressure on. I was picking off runners from earlier waves, and keeping a gap on another 40+ competitor who was trying to run me down. With one kilometer to go I gave it pretty much all I had and held my spot. I ended up in 8th overall for amateurs. Even better I was second in the 40+ class, thus earning a World Championship berth.

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