From: brand@rtsg.mot.com (Robert W. Brand)
Subject: Lake Geneva International Triathlon
Organization: Motorola Inc., Cellular Infrastructure Group
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 14:40:29 GMT


Lake Geneva International Triathlon
Sept. 12, 1992
Fontana (Lake Geneva), Wisconsin
1.5k-40k-10k Tri-Fed Sanc.
500-600 competitors, mostly local.


The race director billed the race as being not a normal triathlon. 
He warned against trying to set a PR due to the technical nature of the
course, and spoke of comradery among the contestants that had done the
race before.  He admitted that there had been some problems in previous years
of running the race, and that the weather was not always cooperative, but
after a night of temps in the 40's, it appeared it was going to be a warm
sunny day, and it was.  There was a relaxing attitude about this race among 
the organizers and competitors that was good.  "This is not Chicago" was the
cry of the volunteers who allowed family and friends of the racers, many of
whom had driven an hour or so from Chicago, in the transition area.  It seems
like an unusual practice these days, but it was not out of place in this friendly
Wisconsin race.

SWIM:
Water temp posted at 65, but the director said about 68.  It felt ok
but I'm glad that I had my wetsuit. The swim was diamond shaped, which 
is a little unusual.  This makes navigation a little more tricky, which
can always be a factor in time.  The director also said the swim would be
a little long this year "to make up for last year."  He said that the time
would be factored into last years and new results would be mailed out -- well
I thought it was funny.  The race was started in two minute waves of 100 or
less people.  I came out of the water at 29 min and something after a fairly 
good swim.  This is maybe three or four minutes longer than I would expect, 
but probably because of the extra distance, so it's all relative.

BIKE:
The director mentioned that it would be hilly and there would be some gravel
on the course.  I thought he meant a few stones in the corners.  There were
entire roads that were not paved!  It's a new experience ripping down a hill
at 28mph with 25c tires on packed gravel.  A few people were walking around
with road rash after the race.  There were many corners that make you slow,
many train tracks to cross, perhaps four or five sets, and lots of hills, some 
that I had to stand to crank up -- some of them pretty long.  I got better at 
them towards the end of the course after my legs became numb from the pain.  
I averaged 21.5 for 25.7 miles, which is a little slow for me, but given the 
conditions, I was satisfied with it.

RUN:
Before the race, everyone was snickering about "the hill" at the beginning
of the run.  I was mentally prepared for it, but man, I am not used to running
on something like that.  I'm not good at judging grades, but it's a little steeper
than anything in north eastern Illinois, and winds through some woods for probably
close to a mile.  Then, you get the pleasure of running down it, which may have been 
worse.  The course was out and back, so you got to do it twice.  I was not 
inspired by the runners who went up it like they were running in a lake bed.  The 
rest of the run was over smaller hills which seemed a blessing compared to the 
big one.  There was even a great, relatively flat section that ran through a park 
around a big observatory -- very cool looking.  I would normally expect a 10k
time of around 48 minutes in a tri.  My time on this course was around 51 minutes.  
I was happy just to have finished :).

I ran the race cautiously, because there were so many surprises: the
gravel, the hills, etc.  My final time was 2:36:45 which had me in 99th
place overall in the results posting I checked.  The winning time was 
2:01:xx I believe, which indicates the techical nature of the course, as
olympic distance winning times can typically be in the 1:45-1:50 range.  I
enjoyed the race though.  It was fun and challenging.



-- 
Bob Brand