Submitted by Ken Frankenbery

After being off 5 weeks  with a separated shoulder, I was able to do some light swimming last week, tried out my mountain bike wed, and thought I could sneak in one last  race  , to gauge my fitness before National Championships next month in Utah.

One thing I love about the Xterra off road tri’s- is unlike road Tri’s, that are all pretty similar- the Xterra’s are all very unique and different.

The wilds is a State run animal preserve, the swim takes place across the street,  in what I would classify as a “moat” or channel shaped like a U, the bike was a super tight 7 mile loop ( 2 laps) , and the 4 mile  run cross’s the street to run through the  animal preserve.

When I looked things over Friday (especially the swim area), pre rode the bike loop- I was a little apprehensive about how well organized (or un- organized) – the event would be.

Well, surprisingly, it was very well run, chip timing, the swim was actually way better than it looked- it was way deeper (and cleaner) – than I thought, (800 meter loop) and with the relay teams, over 100 people showed up

They allowed wet suits so I elected to wear mine- which helped my swim, but with weak shoulder suit felt like it was filled with lead on my bad arm!

I swam conservatively  , coming out of the water in about 34th place, passed 3-4 people in transition, hit the bike and passed almost 20 people in the 2 laps, hit the run feeling great, passed another couple people on the run.

The run was very cool- running past fields of buffalo, and other wild animals. There was one section not well marked, where I had to double back to make sure I was going the right way, and it got a little tricky running the last mile right through the main street of wilds, with family’s, kids in strollers and pets (I tried not to yell at any one, but scared a few people when I called out passing on your right!) but a very cool run loop.

I ended up 13th overall, winning my age group, with 2nd place coming in almost an hour behind me. I have some work to do before nationals, but hopefully next 4 weeks go well, and can be back in top shape by then