74.7 F
Charlotte Amalie
Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesRunning and Cycling Come Together for Island's Latest Endurance Event

Running and Cycling Come Together for Island's Latest Endurance Event

Oct. 10, 2007 — Stamina Sports, the territory’s newest sports shop, is sponsoring the territory’s newest sporting event: the Stamina Sports Duathlon, coming up Sunday at St. Croix’s Cramer Park.
The duathlon is a running and biking race.
“Duathlons are mostly end-of-season races,” said Tom Guthrie, president of the St. Croix Cycling Federation and manager of Stamina Sports. In the northern United States “the water is too cold for swimming this time of year," he said. He continued, "We are doing it now because it is the end of the season. It is our last race for the year.”
The event is a good chance for people who might want to try an endurance sport but are put off by the long-distance swimming challenge or who might want to start out with something less extreme than a race like the St. Croix Half Ironman Triathlon, Guthrie said. There are three miles of running and 14 miles of cycling in the race, making it an endurance feat for sure, yet within the range of a reasonably fit jogger.
“It’s aimed a bringing new people in,” Guthrie said. “We put on six races a year, and for a tiny island, we have a huge number of endurance athletes.” Besides being an easy introduction to the world of multi-sports for new athletes, it offers a change of pace for experienced triathletes, Guthrie said.
The race begins at the park at 7 a.m.
“The first leg is three loops inside Cramer Park for a one-and-a-half-mile run,” Guthrie said. “They run inside the fence and along the grass by the beach.”
That’s followed by a beautiful 14-mile bike ride around the east end of St. Croix, past Point Udall and looping back, Guthrie said. The final leg is another one-and-a-half-mile run. There will also be a youth race that will feature a one-mile run, a 6.0-mile bike ride and a final one-mile run. Adults can run in this event, too.
Race sponsor Stamina Sports is a cycling and endurance-sport store owned and operated as a co-op by the St. Croix Cycling Federation. It opened just a couple of months ago in Estate Orange Grove.
“I’m not certain, but I think we are the only cycling federation in the world that runs a shop,” Guthrie said. “It’s a non-profit. We are all serious cyclists and triathletes. We have a lot of high-end racing parts, but we’ve also sold over 20 entry-level bikes in the past couple of months, so we are a full retail bike shop.”
Since the store is run by the St. Croix Cycling Federation, anyone who pays $50 to join the federation gets a 15-percent discount off all purchases, Guthrie said. The federation fields athletes in many of the races.
Guthrie spoke about the races while manning the cash register. While Guthrie talked, Glenn Massiah came in to see him. Massiah is one of four Federation members competing this weekend in the 75-mile Caribbean Cycling Elite Championships on Martinique. (See "V.I. Riders Qualify for Caribbean Cycling Championships.")
“I’ve been zinging him a little about being nervous before the race,” Guthrie said. The two coordinated plans for the weekend’s traveling and racing over the shop counter.
Guthrie also heads Project St. Croix, which is organizing the duathlon. Project St. Croix organizes and runs the annual St. Croix Half Ironman triathlon and another five races each year.
Applications for the races can be found at Stamina Sports at 4A Orange Grove, in the old Bingo Building. The store is open Wednesdays and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For the indecisive or disorganized, late registrations will be taken on race day between 6 and 6:45 a.m. For more information, please call 773-8456.
Back Talk Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.