Race Across The Sky

Looks good & well done.

Social Media Revolution, check it out!

This will make you think.

Lake Geneva 1/2 Extreme (half ironman)

Lake Geneva Wisconsin is an awesome place only about 1 1/2 hours north of Chicago. It's the vacation spot of Chicagoans, many famous families such as the Wrigley's & Vanderbilt's have large lake front compounds. I am lucky to have a good friend who lives there, with a boat! I had done this race once before, but have gained a lot experience & fitness since that first attempt at this distance.

Great weather this year (Sept. 12), and I was excited to see what I could do. I picked out a good spot in transition, by a big tree so it would be easy to spot. The swim went well just tried to stay relaxed. The swim time of 33:24 (1.2 miles), which was okay and not a surprise since I hadn't been swimming too much. T1 (3:21) wanted to make sure I was set with all my nutrition & comfortable. Bike started okay, the course splits with the Half taking a turn which I just missed and had to turn around. Not a huge deal. After the turn I remembered a short but steep hill, with being so close to the start of the bike you're not really ready for it. Tried to relax and settle into a rhythm. Checking the time to keep nutrition on track. About about the 2 hour point on the bike my lower back really started to hurt... at times it felt like it was on fire. Never had this kind of trouble before, and with 1 more hour to go, I tried to relax sit up and stretch it. Right around this time I retrieved my Tylenol form my pocket and proceeded to hit a bump and eject it into the air... and, no, I didn't stop. I remembered a long steady hill on a major road, just after making the turn onto to that road about 100 yards in front of me was a guy who went down. I could see his face was scrapped up pretty bad as I went by (support crew was running to him). Flashback to July and the Olympic distance race where I went down... stay relaxed. Bike time 3:04:35 (18.2 mph average)(56 miles). T2 (2:26) happy to get upright and let my back change positions. On to the run and felt pretty good. Quickly I was upon "killer hill," and reminded how steep it really was. Did I mention that it's a two loop run, read: "killer hill" TWICE. Walked fast up the hill stretching my legs with long strides, and twisting my upper body which yielded a few satisfying back cracks. The first loop went well ran everything but the hill. The second loop started to hurt, and I gave it all I could. Run time 2:05:52 (9:36 pace)(13.1 miles). Pleased to cross the line with a new 1/2 PB in the time of 5:49:37. I "showered" in the lake and hurried home to see my family. I would like to figure out the back pain on the bike, and find a 1/2 with a flat run to perform more to my potential.