For once this summer, seemingly since early July, the heat stayed at bay. It was 8:00am in downtown Richmond that the Maggie Walker and Atlee cross country squads lined up for one last preseason practice and their annual time trial.
This marked over a decade of Atlee and Maggie Walker both racing the VITA Course in Richmond's Byrd Park the final friday prior to the start of school and the season.
The course is a 1450m cinder loop with exercise equipment spread throughout. Of course the athletes didn't have to do pushups or monkey-bars throughout the time trial but we are certain did some anyways during warmups.
The course is a fairly easy one. It shoots out basically dead straight for ~250m then enters a elongated right hand 180 degree turn that lasts another 200 or so meters. After that there is a hill and landing followed by curves way to the left and then back towards the start line. Once you're through that part you enter three basic switchbacks that form "U's" like they were connected.
Fittingly, the final 200m is essentially all switchbacks and very difficult to maneuver with speed. This is evidenced in the Atlee Boys time trial (featured above) which had a very close finish at the end.
The meeting of both Atlee and Maggie Walker on the same course is not by chance each year. Coaches Jim Holdren and Jim Triemplar both have a lot in common.
Aside from being friends for quite some time, both coaches have created and sustained programs for decades built on great character and talent. They have both coached multiple state champions and won team titles over the three seasons.
For those that don't recognize the two of them, Coach Holdren would be most readily picked out by his excessive amount of stop watches around his neck and Coach Triemplar would be picked out by his commentating voice that commentated Central region meets for decades.
They both would also hate us talking too much about them so let's get to the teams on the following two pages.