The Angels Race triathlon has grown from a small family event to an entity of its own in just three years.

Sunday’s event attracted 280 individuals and 39 relay teams for a total of nearly 400 participants all running for a different reason, but a common cause.

“We started it because we were hurting and we were trying to heal and remember,” said co-race founder Tim Groover, whose daughter Brittany died at the age of 15 in a car crash outside Jefferson Forest Middle School in the fall of 2002. “Now a vast majority are coming fro their own reasons.

“The saying goes, ‘Misery loves company,’ ” Groover added. “Well, healing loves company, too. More people than you might think have experienced that type of loss and for people looking for ways to heal from loss, there’s a bond hat develops almost immediately.”

Plenty of participants wore buttons or sported pictures of lost loved ones on T-shirts while numerous others had names written in magic marker on their bodies alongside their race numbers.

David Broman, Brittany Groover’s uncle and one of more than 100 volunteers on hand, served as a race starter for the third straight year.

“He starts every swimmer in the pool, on his knees in Lane 1, and doesn’t let them leave the wall until they tell them who they’re swimming for,” Groover said. “He asks, ‘Who’s your angel today? Who are you doing this for?”

As a sprint triathlon, the Angels Race appeals to a wide range of athletes. The distances (300-meter swim, 25-kilometer bike stage and 5K run) are short enough not to be intimidating for first-timers. Approximately half of the participants in Sunday’s third-annual event held in downtown Lynchburg had never before entered a triathlon.

“It’s a perfect beginner’s race,” said Randolph-Macon Woman’s College swim coach Donna Hodgert, who ran her first triathlon in the inaugural Angels Race two years ago and now has completed all three. “It’s a little challenging becuase of the hills, but the support you get . . . everybody’s very helpful.”

Prior to Sunday’s main event, Hodgert also helped Jeff Fedorko and professional triathlete Catherine Phillips of Riverside Runners run a 12-week triathlon clinic.

“I did the swimming part, Jeff Fedorko did the running and Cat was the all-around triathlon expert,” said Hodgert, who had five of her swimmers take part in relay teams. “All the people in our group had a wonderful experience. It’s a really good feeling when you do it for the first time.”

On the other hand, the race, now the first of nine in the Virginia Triathlon series, has also evolved into a very competitive event among the elite triathletes in the field. Participants flocked to Lynchburg from 15 states, as far away as New York, Florida, Texas and California and, like last year, there were several collegiate athletes.

“We had a tremendous amount of college participants from Virginia Tech, JMU, VMI and Virginia who came and participanted in this race as a warmup for next weekend’s Collegiate National triathlon in Lake Havasu, Ariz.,” Groover said. “They really added a lot in terms of their youthful enthusiasm.”

Michael Harlow won Sunday’s event in 1 hour, 5 minutes, 17 seconds with Kevin Reid following close behind in 1:05:25. In the team competition, a trio representing Riverside Runners won in 1:05:2, a tandem named “Pain and Suffering” finished runner-up in 1:06:22 and relay teams from Bikes Unlimited and Blackwater Bike Shop crossed the finish line together in 1:06:40.

Last year’s race of about 300 participants raised about approximately $11,000 for Angels Charities. Sunday’s event raised over $15,000. Portions of those funds will go to the Lynchburg YMCA to help fund after-school youth programs. It will also provide the first designation of a scholarship in memory of Brittany Groover, to a student from what would have been her graduating class at JFHS. Another grant will be given in memory of Karla Bolen, mother of co-race director Mick Gunter, for elementary schools in Fairfax County, where she was a teacher.

A second Angels Race will be held this year in Winston-Salem, NC. The Sept. 18 event will be race No. 10 of the North Carolina endurance series.