By Anne Collier Phillips

The James River Outdoor Coalition (JROC) holds an outdoor adventure triathlon every mid-November called King of the James. The latest race in November 2020 was the sixth annual King of the James. King of the James is not the traditional swimming, biking, and running triathlon. Instead, it consists of mountain biking, followed by trail running, and lastly whitewater paddling. Racers can complete this triathlon individually, or they can choose to race as a team. If racers choose to participate as a team, they can split the legs of the race up by racer. The race requires an entry fee for participating in the race, and all the money JROC raises from registrations and donations goes into improving the James River Park System. This year, they raised over 20,000 dollars from racers, sponsors, and volunteers.

King of the James Race Course. Image credit: Abigale C. Bobb.

The mountain biking leg of the race is ten miles and requires some previous experience, because it is technically challenging. There are many hard turns racers must make while maintaining their speed. There are plenty of rocks and large roots that bike tires can get caught up in if not properly navigated. The leg begins with a lap around the Forest Hill Park lake, and then riders head to Reedy Creek to start the Buttermilk Trail portion of the course. Once riders hit the Nickel Bridge (officially called the Boulevard Bridge), they move onto the North Bank Trail. They then find the Belvedere Bridge, where they will later hop back on to the Buttermilk Trail and close the course back at Forest Hill Park. 

The trail run is a four-mile counter-clockwise run on the Forest Hill trail. Racers then make their way back down to Reedy Creek, where the whitewater paddling leg kicks off. 

The 2.5 mile whitewater course goes through the lower section of the James, which is considered a more difficult section, with class II to IV rapids. Rapids receive ratings based on their combination of difficulty and danger, they are rated on a scale from I (easiest) to VI (most challenging). The James River has various named rapids that present challenges to paddlers of all skill levels. 

The paddling course starts off with the rapid First Break, a common spot to practice whitewater tricks before heading down the lower section of the James. The next challenge is a spot known as Approach and Corner, two rapids whose names are lesser known, as they are just a gateway to Hollywood Rapid. Hollywood Rapid is my favorite spot on the James, due to the swooping green tongue the water creates as it moves around the rocks. Paddling through Hollywood feels like you are being pushed through a silky cloud. Following Hollywood is Hollywood Shoals, then X’s, Second Break, and finally Pipeline. Pipeline is another well-known rapid for its size and difficulty. There are four “drops” within Pipeline, the third being the most challenging of the four. After Pipeline, paddlers race to the finish at the 14th Street whitewater takeout. 

Due to COVID-19 and some unexpected high water levels, the JROC had to make last-minute adjustments with how they held the race in November. Their original plan with handling COVID-19 was to require everyone to wear a mask and keep socially distanced from people, other than family and friends. The race was scheduled for Sunday, November 15, but the Friday before the race, November 13, the water levels rose to a whopping 18 feet. The average water level this past fall season had been around six feet. 

The JROC decided to have the racers complete the course on their own and track their course and time with a workout app. It seems COVID-19 has forced us to find a digital solution for everything. 

The results of the race came out later that day, with Riley Gorman in first place for the men, winning the title of “King of the James.” Gorman’s time was 1:14:16. The title of “Queen of the James” went to Matilde McCann, with a time of 1:46:32. The winning team “Old And In The Way,” which consisted of Cooper Sallade, Brenton Carson, and James Lum, came out with a time of 1:05:45. To see all the other amazing times racers achieved, go to the JROC instagram at @jroc.rva. 

I participated in the race this year as a team with my dad, Camallergy CEO Baxter Phillips III. He completed the mountain biking and trail run portion, and I kayaked the whitewater paddling section. With the new COVID-19 adjustment, I felt less pressure to be aggressive on the river. There was no sense of a pumped-up race environment, where you can see your competitors and those watching and cheering you on. That environment gives you energy to just keep pushing through, even though you’re tired. While this kind of environment was lacking, when completing my time I went out with the James River Women, a women’s kayaking group who have weekly paddles down the lower section of the James. Being on the water with fellow kayakers gave me the motivation needed to complete the race and have fun like I would in a normal race environnement. 

In the 2019 King of the James, one high school senior completed the race. Collegiate‘s Jacob Herring (‘21) participated in the race on a team with his father. The 2019 King of the James did not have last year’s complications, such as high water levels or COVID-19. That pumped-up race environment was present, and the real sense of competition was there. Herring states, “I’m usually not a very competitive person, but there were times when I definitely found myself feeling a little too good about overtaking somebody.” Unlike the 2020 race, many racers had family or friends there watching them in 2019. Herring says, “The support was felt throughout the entire duration of the event, even though I crashed a lot.” Although different this past fall, the King of the James was a positive experience for participants in 2020 as well as past years, and it serves as a wonderful opportunity to get people out on the trails and river.