James River Adventure Game's Women Winners
Lauren Tomory, a scholarship tennis player at Furman University who only started running four weeks ago, won the Women’s Scramble, one of seven events at the James River Adventure Games. Lauren was as delighted with her win as she was unfazed by the challenging terrain. “It’s freakin’ awesome,” said the 21-year-old who is in Richmond for a summer internship. “It’s my first race ever. It was really fun. I’ve been here two weeks and all the runners I’ve met have been so nice.”
Lauren is shown here, right, scaling scaling the “Mayan Ruins” on her way to winning the XTERRA James River Scramble (photo compliments of Sports Backers).
The James River Adventure Games presented by Dominion is a two-day sports competition with seven separate events. The 2008 games were held on June 14-15. Saturday’s competitions included the XTERRA James River Scramble; the Urban Assault Mountain Bike race; the James River Splash Open-water Swim at Robious Landing Park; the Rocketts Landing Sprints Rowing Regatta; the River City Rodeo kayak acrobatics contest and Jammin’ on the James Boatercross whitewater canoe, kayak and raft race on Hollywood Rapids at Belle Isle; and the Belle Isle Bike Trials in the Belle Isle Dryway; and a one-mile Kids Scramble Jr. for young runners on the trails of Belle Isle. Sunday events feature the off-road run-bike-swim triathlon competition of the XTERRA East Championship.
This year the XTERRA James River had 1,338 registered entries, an all-time record.
In other women’s races, the expert Urban Assault Mountain Bike Race was won by Paula Smith, of Richmond, in 1:26:19.
Melanie McQuaid, of British Columbia, won the women’s division of the XTERRA East Championship in 2:18:4. Melanie is seen here, below, taming the “Tubes” (photo courtesy of Nils Nilsen/XTERRA).
Top winners in the James River Splash One Miler were Susan Justis, Amy Roberts, Jennifer Papenfuse, Margaret Pizer, Karen Norrgard, Jeanne Robbins-Patton, Val Pate, Deborah Lowry, and Charlene Magee. Charlene Magee was the only finisher in the age 65-69 women's division, but her time of 36:12:80 was better than many of the top ten finishers in younger divisions.
A complete list of winners is posted at www.SportsBackers.org, along with more information on the James River Adventure Games, including its free interactive events, competitions and the James River Fund.