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Democracy Dash 10K at Jamestown Island

September 16, 2023 Williamsburg, VA 23185 US Directions

Place

Historic Jamestowne Visitor Center
1368 Colonial Parkway
Williamsburg, VA US 23185

Description

The 10K start and finish this year will be at the far end of the parking area for the National Park Service’s Historic Jamestowne Visitor Center, on Jamestown Island. It will start with an out-and-back on the Colonial Parkway causeway just past the short Powhatan Creek bridge/tunnel and scenic overlook, with the James River on the opposite side. Returning past the Visitor Center, the course will go right for the full long loop (5-mile loop) of the traffic-free Jamestown Island tour roads. The course is PR (personal-record) fast and totally flat, and outside of the causeway section at the start, is a wooded, shaded, scenic route with wetlands crossings on wooden bridges, unsurpassed in historical beauty. The course is certified an exact 10K distance to USATF measurement standards (VA-21015-RT). The race time limit is one hour, 45 minutes. There is not a faster, flatter, and more scenic 10K course anywhere! 

REGISTRATION: Online registration is available through 11:59 PM on September 14th. After that time, only hardcopy registration forms and payments will be accepted. You can submit registration forms at the pre-race event from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 15th or you can submit them from 6:00-7:00 a.m. on race morning, September 16th.

PRE-RACE EVENT: Friday, September 15th, 6 p.m.- 8 p.m.: Pick up your race packets & explore the grounds of Historic Jamestowne after hours! Speak to archaeologists about the latest discoveries and enjoy Billsburg Brewery craft beer, and food and refreshments from Magnolia at the Dale House. You can also submit a hard copy of the race registration form, and payment, at the pre-race event if you have not yet registered.

RACE START TIME: 7:30 AM. Packet pick-up will be available on race morning from 6:00-7:00 a.m., if you do not pick up your packet at the pre-race event on Friday night.

POST-RACE ACTIVITIES: Music, craft beer and refreshments, and awards ceremony at Magnolia at the Dale House Cafe on Jamestown Island, overlooking the James River. All 10K finishers will receive finisher medals.

Race Contact Info

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Historic Triangle Triple Crown

Historic Triangle Triple Crown of Road Races Set for 2023

Yorktown, Williamsburg, Jamestown | Virginia

With the three major historical locations of Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown all on the Virginia Peninsula, runners in 2023 will be able to focus their training and racing on the Historic Triangle Triple Crown, a series of three races, two 10Ks and one 5K, one in each of those cities, and all connected by the National Park Service’s historic 23-mile-long Colonial Parkway, built between 1930 and 1957, and part of the NPS’s Colonial National Historical Park, which extends from the York River to the James River.

The first race of the Historic Triangle Triple Crown is Victory at Yorktown 10K Run on Saturday, April 1st. The second is the Run the DOG Street Challenge 5K Run, finishing on the historic Duke of Gloucester Street in Williamsburg on Saturday, April 15th. The third and final is the third annual Democracy Dash 10K Run at Jamestown Island, set for Saturday, September 16th.

There will be a special Historic Triangle Triple Crown finisher medallion, along with individual race finisher medals for all three. There will also be special awards to the top three overall men and women, and top three Masters (ages 40-and-over) men and women, for those runners with the fastest combined times from all three races.

Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English settlement in the New World, in 1607, is also the location for the first democratic government in that New World, in 1619. In 1699, the capital of Virginia was moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg, where it remained until the 1780 move to Richmond, during the American Revolutionary War. Yorktown is the site for the surrender of General Cornwallis and the English to George Washington in 1781.

The Victory at Yorktown 10K Run started in 2015. The course goes by the historic Cornwallis Cave, past the Yorktown Victory Monument, onto the Yorktown Battlefield tour roads, and past Surrender Field, with the final 3/4 mile on Water Street along the York River.

The Run the DOG Street Challenge 5K began in 2010, and starts on Prince George Street, goes through the College of William and Mary campus, before a final 1 ½ miles through Colonial Williamsburg streets, past the Governor’s Palace and Capitol Building, and finishing the final half mile up the Duke of Gloucester Street (called by Franklin D. Roosevelt the “most historic avenue in all America”) to the finish line near the Bruton Parish Church.

The Democracy Dash 10K at Jamestown Island starts and finishes at the far end of the parking area for the National Park Service’s Historic Jamestowne Visitor Center, on Jamestown Island. It will start with an out-and-back on the Colonial Parkway causeway just past the short Powhatan Creek bridge/tunnel and scenic overlook, with the James River on the opposite side. Returning past the Visitor Center, the course will go right for the full long loop (5-mile loop) of the traffic-free Jamestown Island tour roads. The course is PR (personal-record) fast and totally flat, and outside of the causeway section at the start, is a wooded, shaded, scenic route with wetlands crossings on wooden bridges, unsurpassed in historical beauty.

Directions

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