I went up to pre-ride the Richmond Xterra course yesterday with my friend Melissa and Joe. A friend of Joe’s from DC, Matt, was nice enough to show us around. We spent several hours out in the heat, and got a great idea of what to expect for the race in a couple of weeks.

After the ride all I can say is: The trails are AWESOME. However, the race is going to be really hard.

Here’s one of the urban obstacles that Richmond is famous for:

Yes, that’s right… stairs. And not just any stairs… spiral stairs. Several flights of spiral stairs. And this is NOT part of the run course, this is part of the bike course. You dismount and carry your bike up the stairs and cross over this bridge to access the next part of the trail. And you do this not once, but twice. NICE.

The hard part about Xterra Richmond is going to be the ENTIRE race. There isn’t one leg of the race that isn’t technical. The swim is technical… swimming in the James River, you have to watch out for rocks and sand bars. It’s pretty shallow most of the way, and I was afraid to use my full pull for fear of knocking a rock. I sighted a whole lot because seeing the bottom of the river freaked me out, much like my swim in Lake James a couple weeks ago.

Then you move on to the bike, which, is going to be crazy. Just look at the stairs. That’s only ONE crazy part of the ride. And you do them twice.

The run isn’t going to be any easier. You scale the resivoir wall by climbing a ladder, and there are railroad tie stairs to run up, boulders to jump across… let’s just say I hope I’m still standing at the end of the race!

It’s going to be SO much fun. I am looking forward to the adventure.