2007/2008 XTERRA East Championship Highlights

From 2007

Also from 2007. Longer video. Shows a lot of the Urban Assault mountain bike race, which is now part of Dominion Riverrock instead of XTERRA.

From 2008

It’s nice to see such experienced riders working so hard to ride our local trails. Watching these videos is getting me pumped up for the XTERRA and Dominion Riverrock races.

Belle Isle vehical bridge reopened

River District News is reporting that the vehicle bridge on the south side of Belle Isle has been reopened.

The article quotes a press release from the city that mentions that the re-opening of the bridge “provides a safe method of travel for emergency vehicles”.  Emergency vehicle access is really important as the weather improves and more people spend hot days sunning on the rocks and playing in the water.  But more importantly, the re-opening of the bridge will allow a vehicle to drive down to drain the port-o-poty.

I made the mistake of entering the port-o-poty back in February and it was one of the most disgusting things I had ever seen.  A park employee told me that no one had been able to drive down to change it out since the bridge was closed.  I imagine that the guy that ended up changing it out was either the new guy, or someone that lost a bet with his coworkers.

The re-opening of the bridge is good news for anyone interested in the XTERRA races, the Urban Assault or next year’s Duathlon.  It’s also good for people riding the Buttermilk/Northbank loop.  We’ve had to resort to throwing our bikes over the barricade and climbing over to avoid a detour over the rocks or the Lee Bridge.

Here’s an article that talks about the initial closing of the bridge and has a picture of the barricade.

Course Preview – National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race

Yesterday my buddy and I spent the morning (Easter Sunday) exploring the National Duathlon Festival Off-Road Sport Race course. The race consists of a 5k trail run, 11k bike (mountain) and a 3k trail run. The National Duathlon Festival website had maps of last year’s courses, but the race organizers definitely needed to change them due to repairs being done to the Belle Isle vehicle bridge. So we were exploring the area trying to guess how the course would be revised.

Following last year’s course maps we ran from the Tredegar parking lot, along the Northbank trail to the turn-around point for the 5k section, and then back to Tredegar. It was not quite as challenging as I thought it was going to be. The trail is very narrow in sections, which wouldn’t be a big deal, except for the fact that any quick divergence from the trail could result in a long fall down an embankment.  It’s really difficult to image people running both directions on the trail at the same time.  But this trail has been used before for the race, so we figured that this section wouldn’t change because access to the trail isn’t affected by the Belle Isle vehicle bridge issue.

Next we tried to figure out which bridge the race organizers would use for the biking course to get from the transition point to the Buttermilk trail. We rode our bikes along the same course as the James River Scramble 10k which brought us east to the 14th Street bridge and west along the floodwall. Using this bridge to get to the south side of the James River was more out of the way than we had expected and was obviously not the route they would pick. After looking around we realized that the Lee Bridge would be the best choice. But how they would make up for the mileage lost by bypassing Belle Isle?

Well, today we got our answer (opens pdf).

Run #1

The 5k run course leaves transition and takes runners to Belle Isle via the footbridge. The course will loop the gravel road around the base of the island and turn left to the top of the island. On top of the island the route will do a complete loop of the top of the island before descending a trail off the south east side of the island. The missing trail on the east end of the island will bring the runners back to the footbridge and back to transition.

It’s pretty disappointing to see that the Northbank Trail run got axed completely. Running over the footbridge to Belle Isle is boring, and running on Belle Isle is also boring. There are a few singletrack sections on the hill at Belle Isle, but the course is now only about 10% trail. The rest is the footbridge (concrete) and gravel road (booo). Here is the track of the new Run #1 course

Bike

The bike course will leave transition and go across the Lee Bridge on the vehicle portion (which will be coned off from the cars) of the road. The course goes parallel to Riverside drive and then goes down the stairs at 22nd street. The course goes west along a gravel road until the 42nd Street stairs. Go up the stairs and stay to the right. This trail will do a cloverleaf and head back toward the east. Stay on the Buttermilk trail and take a right turn into Forest Hill Park just after crossing the Reedy Creek parking lot. You will make a right turn across the concrete bridge and around a parking lot before heading down the lake. Once at the lake, take the trail back to the pipes under Riverside Drive. Head east on the Buttermilk trail until the Lee Bridge. Take the Lee Bridge back to transition.

The original course for the biking course used Belle Isle. While running on Belle Isle is pretty boring, biking on Belle Isle is slightly less boring. The gravel road parts go by faster and the challenge of the climbs and the singletrack section are a lot more fun. The new course completely bypasses Belle Isle and compensates by adding in some of the trails in Forest Hill Park. Adding these trails instead of Belle Isle definitely makes the biking section a lot more challenging. I’m not 100% sure about how the course will work going in to Forest Hill, but I plan on checking it out this coming weekend.

After riding the Buttermilk this past weekend I’ve realized that parts of it are a lot more technical than I remember. I’ll definitely need to spend some time down there to figure out which technical sections I can complete in the saddle and which ones I will have to bail on and walk. There are a few that I might master before the race but I’m definitely not too proud to hoof the rest.

Here is the track of the new Bike course

Also, here are a couple of videos I found on YouTube of Forest Hill and the Buttermik. The Forest Hill video also includes some footage of the Buttermilk trail.

(YouTube blocked the audio from the first one due to copyright issues. Just play some music while you watch it.)

(The music on this one is kind of cutesy. You might want to mute it and listen to some Rage Against the Machine instead.)

Run #2

The 3k run leaves transition and goes to Belle Isle via the foot bridge. After a short loop on Belle Isle the runners will cross back on the footbridge and return to transition.

There is nothing cool about the second Run secition of the race. It just burns off some mileage. I’m still baffled by the fact that they cut out the Northbank section. It would have been so much fun.

Here is the track of the new Run #2 course.

Hopefully next year the courses will be back to normal. I’m a little nervous about the biking section of the race, but I’m sure that I’ll feel better once I spend some more time on the trails. But I’m not too proud to walk sections and I’m not afraid of being last. I just want to get my first multisport race under my belt.

I also want to get my grubby hands on the slick backpack they give to the participants: