Running
in Virginia
Triathlons,
Duathlons, Adventure Races and More
For
some Virginians, the regular workout just isn’t
enough. The triathlon – the endurance race made
famous in Hawaii with its Ironman version – has arrived in
Virginia. Just check out the Virginia
Triathlon Calendar and you will find more than
50 combination swimming, biking and running races or
their variations scheduled between late April and
early September this year.
Depending
on their dedication and physical fitness, Virginians
could complete in a short Super Sprint Triathlon in Warrington
on July 20 or a Half Triathlon in
Williamsburg on September 6. The Super Sprint involves a
150-meter swim, a 12.4 mile bike course and a
three-mile run, while the more challenging Half
Triathlon requires a 1.2 mile swim, a 56-mile bike
course and a 13.1 mile run. Other races are
scattered across the state from Colonial
Beach to Lynchburg.
Triathlons
are a fairly recent phenomenon. The first races seem
to date back to the 1920s in France to events known as “Les Trois Sports.” In the
U.S. they began in the early 1970s as offbeat training
exercises for runners. The first triathlon event –
the above-mentioned Hawaii Ironman -- evolved over a
debate as to whether runners or swimmers were the
better athletes. Hawaii had three major events at the time -- the Waikiki
Roughwater Swim (2.4 miles/ 3.862 kilometers),
the Around-Oahu Bike Race (115 miles); and the
Honolulu Marathon (26.219 miles / 42.195 kilometre. These
were combined for the first Ironman competition in
1978. The sport debuted at the 2000 Summer Olympics
in Sydney with the regulation distances of a 1,500-meter swim,
40-kilometer bike course and 10-kilometer run.
In
the Old Dominion the events attract mainly amateur
athletes, but their prowess and dedication runs the
gamut. We crossed paths with Doug Trogdon, a
Centreville resident who has been participating in
triathlon events for the past two years, and he
provided us some insight into this unusual but
passionate subculture.
According
to Trogdon, there seem to be three types of athletes
at the events he has attended, which typically
attract anywhere from 500 to 800 participants. There
are the super serious triathletes, who compete in
the longer events such as the half and full
triathlons; those who are just starting out and are
trying the shorter sprint races; and those that
don’t exercise much and show up with old bikes
just to attempt the race. What Trogdon likes about
his hobby is the positive energy level. There’s a
“we can do it,” attitude among all contenders,
whatever their level of experience, he says.
When
Trogdon started training for triathlons, he found
swimming to be the skill he needed to work on most.
This seems to be true of many triathletes. Trogdon
enlisted the help of a lifeguard to help him
streamline his swimming style for the race. Swimming
in open water races is a special skill when others
are splashing around.
For
many, training for triathlons offers a change from
more boring workout routines. One triathlete
interviewed in The Roanoke Times a few years
back says he found that his body fat was lower than
when he was just a runner and that swimming gave him
a good aerobic workout while biking worked different
muscles, such as the hamstrings. ("Giving
Triathlons a Try," September 12, 2006).
Triathlons
are most often individual events with participants
trying to compete against their best times. Each
separate section is timed – the swimming, biking
and running portions – as well as the transition
periods from swimming to biking and biking to
running. While many racers will wear their swimming
gear on the biking and running portions of the race,
there is an art to fast transitions, such as putting
socks and shoes on wet feet quickly. Racers wear
timing chips – often on wrist bands and at the
start of the triathlon they are issued a bib number,
which also is marked on their bodies with Sharpies.
It takes rubbing alcohol to get the marks off, our
local source, Trogdon says.
Racers
often compete in age categories and, though not
sanctioned by the U.S. and international triathlon governing organizations,
some races offer weight categories with a Clydesdale
category for men over 200 pounds and an Athena
section for women who are more than 150 pounds. For
non-swimming athletes there are duathlons, which
normally consist of a running segment, a biking
segment and another running segment.
True
extreme sport enthusiasts can upgrade from
triathlons to adventure races held in wilderness
areas, often over periods of 24-hour or longer. In Roanoke
the Odyssey
Outdoor Adventure Race involves a 75-mile course
in the
Blue Ridge
with trail running, mountain biking and whitewater
kayaking sections. It’s scheduled for July 26 and
registration is still open. The 100-mile Untamed
Adventure Race in Richmond, September 12-14, offers a 30-hour course of
paddling, biking, running, orienteering, ropes and
more. There is also a four-hour “Dash” course
for the less daring.
But,
back to the triathletes. For those who want to
attempt this endurance sport, here’s some advice
for training from Runners World: (1) Practice
swimming in a competitive group by inviting your
friends to the pool to swim laps around you and make
waves; (2) Follow a bike ride with a run to get used
to the transition; (3) Choose a race that is at
least 12-weeks away or longer to have time to train;
(4) Replace easy running days with swimming or
biking workouts; (5) Swim and bike at least twice a
week to develop fitness in those areas.
It’s
definitely a whole new world for the average
athlete. We think the name of a Virginia
triathlon team says it all. The three members call
themselves Drip-Clip-Rip.
NEXT:
The Developer’s Daughter: Road Names in
Virginia
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July 7, 2008
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