Cross Country National Championships for Masters Contested in Flemington, New Jersey

Herndon lawyer and triathlete Doug Landau at the start of the 2013 USAT&F Masters Cross Country National Championships held at Flemington’s Deer Path Park, in bucolic Hunterdon County, New Jersey

As is his habit, once Doug Landau finds out where he has to go to help his injured and disabled clients, he then looks to see what family, friends, places and races he can fit ingot he trip. Hence this web sites’ “Cases, Faces, Places & Races” categories. On his way back from visiting with a client in a New England Hospital, Landau visited his parents, boyhood neighbor, elementary and junior high schools. Unafraid to to the line in big cases or championship races, the Herndon Virginia injury lawyer was a last-minute entry into the USA Track & Field’s National Cross Country Championships for Masters runners. Masters runners from all over the United States came to New Jersey to compete over the grassy, hilly course in Flemington. Landau had been to Hunterdon County many times in order to help a FedEx truck delivery man who had been attacked by dogs and severely bitten and mauled. Competing in five year age groups, the fleet footed runners also competed as teams.

Because he was visiting clients in Connecticut, Herndon Virginia injury lawyer Doug Landau was able to drop in on his way home. As the only Virginian in his category, Landau competed as an “unattached” runner, though he wore his “Triathlon Trial Lawyer” kit. This was lawyer Landau’s first foray into national championship competition with racing spikes. The spikes Landau wore where the same ones he wore for the USAT&F Indoor National Championship track and field meet in Prince George County Maryland. While the itinerant injury lawyer would have liked proper outdoor spike set, he felt that the short indoor set sufficient to prevent unnecessary falls. The short indoor spikes also gave him the traction on the uphill portions of the challenging 2-loop course and enabled the Herndon harrier to average 6:46/mile.

Unlike the USAT&F Cross-country 8Km championships in Maryland several years ago, this race did not have timing mats every 2 km. Instead, there were ground markings for every kilometer, mile, and even parts of a mile to help racers gauge their speed, pace, and race tactics. Anytime there is a national championship in running, biking, swimming, triathlon, or other multi-sport events, within a few hours of the Landau Law Shop, Landau will compete with the country’s best athletes. The week he flies to Arizona to compete in the US National DUathlon Championship. After that, in mid-November, he will again toe line on the East Coast in the USAT&F National Road Racing Championships in Alexandria Virginia. That 12 K race will test his running endurance on a course where he had been the race director the “Four Bar Four Miler” fundraiser for the foundation of the Alexandria Bar.