(This post has been edited to correct the results of the relay.)

The official results are in from the Black & Blue Relay, and Team Little Guy has much to be happy about! Of 20 teams competing, TLG’s three teams all finished 10th place or higher. Leading the pack was the 4th place finish by Eric Gelly & Tom Heyden, who completed the relay in 11 hours, 36 minutes and 30 seconds! In addition, Heyden & Gelly clocked the fastest time of any two-person team in the relay! Way to go fellas!

Placing eighth overall at 12:15:55 was the four-person team of John Radebaugh, Josh Chavez, Ed Agnoli and Jeff Hardin. Meanwhile, Team CUNA Mutual Group — Robin Kolvek, Scott Binder, Tim Gardner and Randy Coleman – barrelled into Asheville in 12:43:20, which was good for 10th place overall.

TLG offers congratulations to the team “Deliverance,” which wrapped up the relay in just 9 hours and 54 minutes, as well as each of the 17 other teams that participated in the relay!

During the relay, Bubba Gelly videotaped some of the sights and sounds – enjoy!

Three credit union teams representing Team Little Guy strapped on the helmets and slapped on the biking shoes this past Saturday, completing the Black & Blue Relay. The race, a 200-mile, three state relay held in the mountains, happened amid temperatures that were just about perfect for biking.

The race weekend began Friday evening, as two of the three participating teams stayed at Bubba Gelly’s cabin in Fancy Gap, VA. Bubba, always the impeccable host, made sure the six bikers representing the two teams were fed and entertained throughout the evening on Friday. Meanwhile, the third team of CUNA Mutual riders spent a fun evening together at the cabin of a First Carolina Corporate Credit Union staffer.  

Saturday – race day – got an all-too-early start after a late night. A 3:00 am wake-up call was just enough time to hit the road at 4:00 and head to Grayson Highlands State Park for the start of the race.

Grayson Highlands lies above 5,000 feet in elevation and with a turn to unusually cool July weather the afternoon before, the race started out rather chilly - it was 52 degrees with a 10-15 mph wind at 6:00 am when the race began. With a sharp downhill to begin stage one and bike speeds approaching 30-40 mph in some spots, the bikers were plenty chilled through the early stages of the race!

The weather gradually warmed through the morning and into the afternoon as the sun poked through, but the temperatures never got above about 75 degrees. So the bikers enjoyed just about perfect weather for the long relay.

The three teams made steady progress during the relay, paced by the two-person gazelles otherwise known as Tom Heyden and Eric Gelly. Heyden & Gelly each rode 100 miles in two 50-mile increments, and completed the relay in 11 hours and 39 minutes. Their average speed of just under 17 mph and finishing time was good enough for a fourth place finish in the 20 team relay!      

Heyden & Gelly were relaxing with family and friends when the second team finished up at 6:22 pm. The four-person team of John Radebaugh, Ed Agnoli, Josh Chavez and Jeff Hardin completed the relay in 12 hours and 22 minutes, or a little more than 16 mph for the entire course. Three of the four riders competed on the same team last year and completed the relay in 13 hours and 37 minutes. “We had a goal of finishing in 12 and a half hours this year,” said Radebaugh, “so it felt nice to see all the hard training we did the past few months pay off.”

The four-person CUNA Mutual Group team came in soon after at 6:44 pm, completing the relay successfully in 12 hours and 44 minutes. Randy Coleman gets special mention for doing arguably the two toughest stages of the race – stage three has two monster climbs including Grandfather Mountain, and stage eight is an even worse ascent over the Black Mountains and into Asheville at the end of the race.  Robin Kolvek, Tim Gardner and Scott Binder completed the CUNA Mutual team, riding hard from start to finish.

A little later in the week, we’ll post some video highlights of the race (thanks for manning the camera, Bubba!).  In the meantime, Team Little Guy thanks each and every one of you for your words of encouragement and support. As we mentioned last week, we”ll be sharing details soon about how you can be a part of Team Little Guy at future events, as we continue to raise money for the Carolinas Credit Union Foundation – and show that the credit union cooperative spirit lives on in this 100th anniversary of the credit union movement in America!

The motley TLG crew managed to finish and remain standing last year, anyway.

Greetings! It’s been a long time between posts, but Team Little Guy is alive, well and gearing up for more athletic adventures – all in the name of credit union philanthropy!

For the moment, we’ve set aside the running shoes, and we’re grabbing the bike helmets and heading to the mountains for the Black & Blue Relay Race! The race, which is an all-day bike relay on Saturday, July 18th, is a 208-mile biking odyssey through the mountains of Virginia & NC! (To get a flavor for what the Black and Blue is like, check out the TLG relay recap from last year.)  

At last check, 15 teams had signed up for this unusual relay – and three of those teams have TLG connections! Team Little Guy is fielding a four-person team made up of NCCUL President/CEO John Radebaugh, NCCUL Director of Education & Financial Literacy Ed Agnoli, Choice Community Credit Union Member Service Representative Josh Chavez and yours truly, Jeff Hardin, NCCUL director of communications.

A second four-person team is made up of representatives from CUNA Mutual Group, including Sales Manager Robin Kolvek and Sales Executives Tim Gardner (GA), Scott Binder (FL) and Randy Coleman (SC).

These four-person teams will divide the riding chores up fairly equally and will pedal two stages & 50 miles apiece.

TLG will also field a two person team made of NCCUL EVP/COO Eric Gelly & CUNA Mutual Group Senior Sales Executive Tom Heyden. These men of steel will both wind their way up and down the mountains for more than 100 miles apiece!

We’ll be providing updates on our progress via Team Little Guy’s Twitter page, and updating the blog as we are able. So if you are on Twitter, follow us there!

Of course, the primary focus of Team Little Guy is to raise awareness of credit unions, and to promote the community involvement & philanthropy of credit unions in North and South Carolina through the Carolinas Credit Union Foundation. While we have not actively been fundraising for this weekend’s event, we are going to announce some exciting opportunities for your credit union to be involved with sponsoring TLG later this year.

One thing we can share with you – we’re making plans to ride in the MS Tour to Tanglewood on Saturday & Sunday, September 26-27. Moving forward, we’ll be inviting your support and participation of Team Little Guy in this ride — and a variety of other ways.

In the meantime, Ride Strong Team Little Guy!