Lake Geneva offers a remarkable range of topography as the course winds along the beautiful lake, through the picturesque rural dairyland, and up and down some remarkable hills before returning to the lake. The organizers featured adequate support at aid stations every 2-3 miles during the first 15 miles (shared with the 25-K runners), but during the last ten miles of the 5-13-00 event two of the aid stations were unstaffed for mid-pack and back-of-the-pack runners. A garden hose thrown over a metal chair provided the only aid at mile 20 at the Yerkes Observatory! Bottom line: Of the ten marathons I've run as a mid-pack runner, Lake Geneva offered some of the finest scenery but, regrettably, the worst organization. Sorry, I won't be back to this one.

Course starts at lake level and repeatedly climbs and then drops you back to lake level. Hills get longer and steeper after 16 miles. Generally no traffic to deal with. Only 175 runners do the full marathon, so there is plenty of room to run. The 2000 race had 25 mph winds out of the west. About 6 miles were directly into this wind and for only 2 miles did we have the wind at our back. Very difficult, but rewarding marathon.

Fantastic course (rolling hills) around the lake, great sweatshirt, unfortunately no medals.