The Richmond course is classic, and renowned for having some of the most technical trails in XTERRA despite being in the heart of a big city.

The swim has become a poster child for the XTERRA creed that “Mother Nature is your toughest competitor”. It’s slated to start at the boat ramp at Brown’s Island, where competitors swim across the James River to Belle Isle, get out of the water—shuffle a few hundred feet across Belle—and then swim back. The James isn’t very cooperative, however, so expect the unexpected.

The Sprint race swim will not exit the water at Belle Isle. Sprint swimmers will complete a single loop in the water and return to the boat ramp at Brown’s Island.

The bike will be two laps of 10 miles each.  The biggest changes are rather than crossing the James River on the footbridge under the Lee Highway Bridge and riding around Belle Isle, the bike will now take the south bound on ramp to the top of the Lee Bridge.  “We will have the entire shoulder lane which is wide enough for a few bikes to ride side-by-side, coned off” said Dave Nicholas.  We’ll ride the normal XTERRA course on Buttermilk, Forest Hills across Boulevard Bridge and back on the north trail.  The difference is Sprint will do one lap and go to transition, Championship will have their bike marked and do a second lap.  We expect the finish time will go back over two hours for the winner.  The run remains the same for Championship, but Sprint will now incorporate the legendary “Dry Way” crossing of the James river rather than run back on top of Lee Bridge.

The run starts easy enough, a pleasant jog along the canal, across the river, and on top of the floodwall with a great view of the city. Then athletes turn onto a dirt trail and suddenly an 80-foot vertical climb up railroad ties stares them in the face. They call it the Mayan ruins because it looks just as gnarly as a 2000-year-old temple. After that quad burner, things get easy again for a little while but all kinds of climbs and twists and turns lie ahead. A cool section of forested singletrack meanders through the woods along the river, leading to a water crossing over a small island where athletes encounter rocky terrain and the legendary riverbed crossing “The Dry Way”. From there racers climb up an old iron ladder to Belle Isle, cross over the James on the footbridge, and head back to Brown’s for the finish.

Registration fee includes an event T-shirt and post-race refreshments.

A USA Triathlon license is required. Single-day licenses are available for $12 through XTERRA registration.