We were up early and down to the beach by 7am to meet up with the school bus (Yes the typical American style yellow bus) that was transporting all the competitors to the race start.

As we drove along next to the beautiful Lake Michigan and through the stunning city of Chicago I realised how proviledged we are to be 'living the dream.'

I had a very long time to ponder on my epiphany as the drive to the start took a full 45 min...plus some! Now for those of you that are not endurance junkies, like myself, you start to get a little nervous when you consinder the fact that you have to paddle ALL that way that you just drove...'Living the dream' took on new meaning suddenly...

It was FLAT, I mean pancake flat... the only ripples and fun were going to come from fellow competitors or passing boats. Which happened!

The race was really enjoyable, as there were 5 stops along the way. 10km, 10km, 7km, 6.5km and 6km took you to the finish line. At each stop you had to get out of your ski and run around a table. These stops were great and just as you were getting bored, there was another stop coming... You could pick up the pace and power into the stop. It made a potentially 3 and a half hour paddle (for me) seem like only 2 hours.

The bunches broke up pretty early on in the race with Dawid, Bevan Manson and Steve Woods breaking away after about 6 or 7km. Eric Borgnes and Rob (local paddler) chasing them down with a double ski. I was in the 3rd bunch with Joe Glickman.

Dawid, Bevan and Steve were together all the way for the full 3 hours and 11 min, with Daw just out sprinting them in the last 500m.

I had a strong second half (suprisingly enough) and caught Rob and the Double ski, but worked a little too hard to catch them and blew at 37km, 2km before the finish line... So they dropped me again and I ended up in 7th place overall.

The event was really well run by Tim and Kristin, they thought of everything. They took special care of the small details and made it a great event that I will definately come back to next year. They had many volunteers organising craft, food, safety and som uch more...(Thanks guys it was awesome) ALL the People we met were super friendly and great to hang out with, it was fantastic to make so many new friends!

So back to SA in the morning for some hard training and preperation for Hong Kong and Dubai!