XTERRA King of the Hill Race Report

By Brian Brett, XTERRA Rep

One hundred and thirteen athletes from 15 states and 5 different regions showed up for the XTERRA King of the Hill. The course and the location is a perfect tune up for the Mid Atlantic Regional Championships in Richmond. The venue is in the beautiful Round Valley Recreation Center, with its pristine lake, campgrounds and lots of tough mountain biking trails.

The course is a 200-yard sprint down the beach and then a cold .5-mile swims out and back course done twice. The Mountain bike course is a 12-mile lolly pop loop full of hills, tight turns, lots of rocks, and hairy decents. The 5k run has athletes run up the infamous Toboggan Hill. A hill so long and steep, you don't know if running is any faster than walking up it.

Race Director Joe Patanella sounded the horn and the athletes were off for their 200 yard beach sprint before hitting the water. Two fast swimmers emerged from the lake and about a minute behind, the chase pack followed with a few of the pre race favorites like Frank Febbraro, Ken Robbins and young and upcoming Ian Sullivan.

On the Women's side, Liz Greenfield was out of the water first, with a bunch of the pre-race favorites not too far behind. Andrea McGuire was back quite a bit from the cold swim - but she had an awesome bike and was 1st into T2, followed by Val Hardin and Sarah Lichtenwalner.  Ian Sullivan had a smoking bike ride and came into T2 with a comfortable lead. Ken Robbins and Frank Febbraro came in a few minutes later.

Val Hardin passed Andrea McGuire in the tough 5k run to win in 1:51:39, with Andrew right behind in 1:52:36 and in 3rd was Sarah Lichtenwalner in 1:53:36. Sullivan won easily in 1:26:51, followed by Frank Febbraro in 1:32:19, and Ken Robbins in 1:34:15.

The XTERRA Post Race party was filled with antics and prizes, a push-up and sit-up contest for raffles. We'd like to thank the Round Valley Recreation Center for hosting one of the best XTERRA Points Series events.

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