Great weather at Panther Creek this year. My son and I spent two nights the campground, and he ran the 4 mile trail run on Saturday while I had another night before the Xterra race on Sunday.
With such nice weather and plenty of time, we hit the pool at the park on Saturday after the trail run and went into town for dinner. We even caught two ranger-led presentations in the campground: one on snakes and the other on owls. Both had live animals – nice.
I had missed the race in 2017 – so comparing this 2018 race to the one in 2016, only the swim was different. Instead of two laps in 2016, it was a single lap swim which I prefer. Water temp was not wetsuit legal – it’s late July in Tennessee in relatively shallow water! Bike and run were the same as years past. And wow, that bike course is great. The scenery changes drastically throughout each loop of two. Nothing super technical, just typical southern XC with short climbs.
Remembering the run from 2016 as being brutally hot, it was nice that the temperature was lower, and I felt much better once the trail run opened up to the sun in the latter half.
Made the weekend great when both my son and I made the podiums for our age groups! Thanks to the crew at Dirty Bird – we’ll be there again in 2019.
Just 29th, 2018
800m Swim, 13 mi Bike, 4.2 mi Run
Xterra Results here
4.2 mile trail run Results here