For loved ones, Angels Race Triathlon is opportunity to remember

Sporting sky blue T-shirts made in memory of David Metzler and Heidi Childs, more than 60 members of Heritage Baptist Church used Sunday morning’s eighth annual Angels Race Triathlon course in downtown Lynchburg as an outdoor sanctuary of sorts.

They joined a large crowd of volunteers who cheered and supported the more than 400 participants in the event, which started with a 300-yard swim in the YMCA pool, continued with a 15-mile bike ride along River Road and concluded with a 5K run that ended at the Community Market.

Three blocks before the finish line, several of the Heritage church members surrounded their youth pastor, Kent Gregory, and ushered him in like a cloud of witnesses on the wings of angels.

“It was incredible,” said Gregory, who worked closely with Metzler and Childs throughout their high school years. “It’s really how the body of Christ and the church is supposed to work, to encourage one another as we go through life.”

He said they helped him to finish strong, and with a smile on his face for David and Heidi.

“I was smiling on the run back in, even though I was in a lot of pain, just thinking of David and Heidi and them rejoicing with the Lord in heaven today,” said Gregory, who spent the past four months training for the race, shedding 40 pounds and plenty of grief in the process. “Their testimony will live on forever, for all of eternity, and … their legacy will definitely live on in the lives of everyone still here on this earth.”

Laura and Don Childs, as well as five of their seven surviving children — daughters Emily, Katelyn, Anna Grace and Abigail and son Andrew — were in attendance, as well as David’s parents, Keith and Susan Metzler, and his siblings.

“This is a way to honor them and honor the Lord as well, and what He can do through their lives,” Laura Childs said.

Besides the two rising Virginia Tech sophomores who were killed at a campground near campus last August, members also turned out in memory of April Haag, who died in a skydiving accident in November 2008.

Their T-shirts featured a scripture reference from 1 Timothy 4:8-12 on the back.

“Our hope comes from the Lord,” Heritage youth co-leader Chris Osborne said. “We know that God is in control and He has a plan. It’s been a very healing time.”

Marcus Wright, of Lynchburg, ran his sixth consecutive Angels Race, finishing first for the second time in three years in 1 hour, 4 minutes, 11 seconds, after placing third in 2008 and second in 2009.

“I just go as hard as I can go,” said Wright, who trains with the Iron Gate Triathlon Club, cycles with the Dire Wolf Racing team and runs in several Lynchburg Road Runners events, completing his first marathon last November in Richmond.

A relay team from Amherst called “Three in the Wind” ran in support of Jonathan Fitzgerald and his three younger siblings, who were seriously injured in a car crash on the U.S. 29 bypass last week.

Joel Wendland, 15, the No. 2 runner behind Fitzgerald on the Lancers’ cross country team this past fall, ran the 5K after Jonathan Allen, a senior teammate, did the swim and Keith Wendland, Joel’s father, rode the cycling stage.

Fitzgerald is in a medically induced coma and his younger sister had to have her spleen and kidney removed, but all are expected to survive.

“We’re running for all of them and in support of Jon because he hasn’t woken up yet,” said Allen, who has visited Fitzgerald in the hospital. “We were friends growing up and we grew apart, but running cross country with him and this acci-dent has brought us closer together again.”

The team finished in 1:14:43, second in the team category to “Lunch at Work,” a trio made up of JMU students, which won in 1:08:10.

“I couldn’t have done it without these two,” Keith Wendland, 49, said of his son and Allen. “I’m proud of them. They did a great job. I thank God for the ability to still be able to do this and pray for Jonathan’s healing.”

Amherst cross country coach Bill Chavis and the mother of Lauren Phelps, one of the Lancers’ top girls runners, are planning to start a race to raise support for the Fitzgerald family in May.

Brennan Heisler, a senior at Christopher Newport University who ran cross country at Jefferson Forest, raced in memory of Brittany Groover, as well as his grandmother who died last year.

Groover was a former JF student who died in a car crash at Forest Middle in 2002, providing the impetus for parents Tim and Beth Groover to start the Angels Race in April 2003.

“It’s good to see a lot of Jefferson Forest graduates here every year, and coach (Jerome) Loy,” said Heisler, who finished 20th in 1:17:28. “It’s a great race. Every year, it seems more and more graduates keep coming back for it. We always used to compete against each other and now we can compete again.”

He ran the Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach in March and the Sandy Bottom Ultramarathon in Hampton, a 24-hour Relay for Life event, last weekend, covering 52.5 miles in 14 hours.

“It keeps you healthy, it’s fun, and it’s a good way to relieve some stress, especially when you’re at school,” Heisler said.

Jay Parker, director of the Downtown Lynchburg YMCA, completed his third consecutive Angels Race.

He ran in honor of his two grandmothers, Marybeth Richards and Lillian Parker, as well as Jim Bibby, a YMCA board member and former Major League pitcher who died in February.

“He was a great person,” Parker said. “I kept up with him for a long time when he was fighting cancer. He was very community-minded and his memory will always be with us.”