anyone race the lake geneva half?
thoughts/opinions/insights/ramblings?
Are you talking about the Lake Geneva Extreme in Wisconsin?
if that’s what the 9/10/05 half ironman is called, then yes.
In that case I can give a review. The swim is a wonderful out and back. The water is very still, deep and the course is very well marked. The bike course is really flat. The only hiccup on the bike is the plethoria of turns. The key turns have volunteers but most don’t. I will say that the road is painted with turn arrows and signs are also at most turns. The run is incredibly hard. It is two laps on a completely closed section of road. What makes it hard is a hill that is straight up (~18-20%) for about 3/4 of mi I think. You get to do this hill twice. The organization is quite good. The transition area is grassy and quite large as well.
Hope this helps and let me know if you have specific questions.
Are you coming in all the way from CA to do this race? Not worth it. Lake Geneva is a beuatiful spot and has some nice rolling hills, but the orgainzation of the race is a bit lax. As you may have noticed there are three races going on at the same time. I have not done the half, but the experince from the international distance and talking with others who did the 1/2, I think I can give you some insight.
The start of the race will begin, well when the race starts. The scheduled time is not always held to so strictly, not due to weather or anything that can push back a race, but becasue the orgainzation is not always on top of things.
The swim is in the lake and all goes well there as long as they don’t realize they have made the course too long and start to pull in the markers while the race is going on.
The bike is nice - it has some nice hills. I know that there have been plenty of riders who were doing the inter and wound up doing the 1/2 becasue of poor markings.
The run is a nice challenge. A good size hill that is at the start of the run. For the 1/2 you have to do the inter run course a second time.
This is a pretty grass roots kind of race for a more expensive price. THe race course itself is nice, it’s just the organization of the race that creates the drawbacks. For instance, spectaors are allowed in transistion and as long as you don’t mind calling out to people to let them know you are coming through and need to get to your bike and gear, then go for it. Toward the finsih area, spectators are all over the place and can easily get in the way of going straight through the finish shoot. I will say, that I think as time is going on the organization is trying to improve…
So all in all, if it you are near by and this is basically in your backyard - Go for it. A race is a race and can be fun to do. But if you are coming all the way from CA, not a good qualiity race to invest in.
thank you very much! is the resort nice? my wife saw ‘spa’ and went nuts…
I don’t know first hand but I’ve heard that they are.
we’re planning a move to chicago, and wanted a final 1/2 for the end of the season that was only a weekend trip.
Yeah, from Chicago it is an easy trip. You can even go up the morning of if need be. Since you’ll be near by then go ahead and use this as away of seeing the area.