Illinois Wilds Xterra 8-18-2012

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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

Muncie 70.3 Ironman – Mark Gorris

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Did the Muncie Endurathon, which is now WTC Ironman 70.3.  They bagged the half distance in favor of a modified distance [1.2 swim/30 bike/10k run]  WTC has shown it’s true colors, they are all about $$$.  Sure it was hot, but no one ever said Ironman is easy.  Not being a super fast swimmer, the race distance really favored the top swimmers.  Came in 80something of the entire pro and amatuer field but only 7th in my AG.  Spent 275 bucks on basically an Olympic distance race.  Will think long and hard before signing up for another WTC event AC