We arrived in Chigaco yesterday for the CHICAGO SHORELINE MARATHON (Google it) this weekend. The race will be held on Lake Michigan.

Our hosts (and race orginisers) are Tim and Kristin Flentyre and they have gone WAAAAAAYYYY out of their way to make sure we are comfortable and organised. They've put us up in a B&B near the finish and have dedicated the entire week purely to running the race and looking after it's competitors. Commited!!

You may be wondering about surfskiing on a lake, but this is no ordinary lake; it's a inland sea! We went for a paddle today and had awesome runs. Then, all along the coast which is bordered by the very dynamic and fun city of Chicago (we spent the day cruising downtown....very fun!), there are the most wonderful beaches you can imagine. This only the second year of the race but from what I can see in prevailing conditions and the Flentyre's commitment to making it happen, it's definitely going to be a permanent fixture and "must do race" on the International calender.

Our last two days in SanFran were super duper. We drove down to Half Moon bay to go and see the famous surf break Mavericks and got to see and also checked out the nature reserve around the Point Bonita area. Then on Tuesday we paddled around Alcatraz and also hiked up to Mount Tamalpais. It was an early start on Wednesday which was spent travelling to Chicago and took us almost the entire day if you take into account the 2hour time change.

Okay, I probably won't be updating again until we're home so keep checking www.surfski.info to see what happens in the race on Saturday.