A six-man team representing the Savannah Striders Track Club — including two from Richmond Hill — won the Blue Ridge Mountain Relay last weekend, a 209.2-mile race from Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia to Asheville, N.C.

“We could have chosen something easier,” joked Tony Murphy, a Richmond Hill resident who works in chemical sales.

Murphy and Tim Fortier, co-owner of Tim and Dave’s Nursery, joined Drew Rabun, Chris Ramsey, Damien McCombs and Ken Beasley on the team. They finished in 25 hours and 49 minutes, ahead of teams from North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and northern Georgia. Tharon Lambert, president of Savannah Striders, accompanied the runners to handle logistics and transportation.

Fortier said Rabun, the team captain, had participated in the race before and designed a training plan to prepare them that included mileage, elevation and difficulty.

“We did some running at night with headlamps and did incremental training with rest periods to mimic the relay aspect of the race,” he said.

Each member of the team ran three legs of varying lengths, difficulty and elevation. To compensate for the lack of hilly terrain in the area, they would run on the Talmadge Bridge.

“We definitely had a disadvantage going in,” Murphy said. “They were calling us the low-landers.”

It was in good fun, Fortier added, noting that he was happy they finished the race without injury and there was a high level of sportsmanship among the teams.

In addition to their specific training, each runner logged 50 to 75 miles per week to get ready. All of them except for McCombs has run in the Boston Marathon, and he’ll make his first appearance there next April.

“It took every man’s best effort,” Fortier noted.

So what does a runner do after such an event? Run.

“Tuesday morning was pretty slow, but if you don’t get moving you just keep stiffening up,” Murphy said.