This swim was not marked properly-it was waaay too short. All of the courses were apparently, the first 1/2 IMers were out in 16 minutes! I started in the front of my wave of 100 people, but off to the left (buoys were on the left) I felt GREAT on this swim. No problems at all. I never did hear the exact water temp but it was nice and warm and smooth as glass. Can't figure out A.G. placing from the website.

Nothing.

DARN WETSUIT! His is cut differently around the heels and it stuck.

Practice with the wetsuit I'm going to use.

I don't remember the 1/2 IM being this hilly last year! For some reason the hills felt really hard to me. But I kept my 20 mph goal - altho my avg speed on my computer after transitiong was 20.2. I didn't think to check my distance but i heard several people say they thought it was a little long too. I did better on my cornering but still need improvement there.

Nutrition was dilute Accelerade and one Espresso HG.

More hill training. More practice cornering.

DOH! My race belt got knocked off the top of my shoes where I put it so I forgot it. Didn't realize it until mile 1 of the run. Probably wouldn't have changed my time any though since I always put it on while running out of transition. I LOVE MY NEW YANKS! They make transition soooo much easier.

Nutrition was 2 small shots of HG from the flask. (Apple Cinn - yuck.)

remember my darn race belt.

PAIN. My legs hurt so badly a couple of times I looked down to make sure it was sweat coming out of my pores instead of blood. I tried to push my speed but honestly just wanted to be done. Walked a little bit of Frank's Killer Hill and a little bit of the shorter but very steep hill after the observatory.

More hill traiing. And not push so hard on the bike.

Drank water, looked for other BTers. Found Coredump, Hiccup and Tupuppy almost right away. Watched Whizzer cross the line (YAY WHIZ!) Didn't know what anyone else looked like. We tried to stay either at the finish line or near the gazebo hoping someone would recognize us...but my BT shirt was in transition and I diidn't want to miss Whiz crossing the line.


Not enough taper the week prior. Hills. General fatige from sleep difficulties this week.


Registration opened late...no sweat for me but MarkK seemed a little stressed about it. As last year I thought the post race activites kinda sucked compared to some other races I've done. There weren't enough aid stations on the run (there were 3 but the last one was 1/2 mile prior to the finish line). The bike course was marked well enough but there were two spot on the run that really could have used some arrows. And the course distances didn't seem very accurate.

Mark did another race put on by the same person, and the general consensus was that the swim course was too long. That race ALSO lacked volunteers and post race activities were mediocre. These races tend to be more expensive too. As a result MarkK and I have pretty much decided to stay away from the entire Lake Geneva Extreme Series.

STILL, my placing was AWESOME for me!!! I actually got solidly to the front of the pack and I am THRILLED about that!!! :)