June Fish 2 (Langstreckenschwimmen München 2017)

It was another scorcher last-last-Sunday (i.e. 8 days ago) with temperatures hitting the low 30's in the greater München area when nearly 500 swimmers gathered at the Oberschleissheim Olympic Regatta lake some 5 or 6 kilometres north of the Munich city-limits for the Langstreckenschwimmen München 2017: two races consisting of 1 km (lame) and 4 km of openwater swimming under the Bavarian Sun [yes, this is another in the long-running series of GWMD "Race Reports"].

The 1 km version, of which we will no longer speak after this, featured just 63 participants and got under way at precisely 11:00. Five minutes later, with these individuals safely out of the way, the gun went off for the 400 or so (356 finishers) participants in the main event. Of those individuals, there were representatives from all over Germany (and outside its borders), including the eventual winner Nicky Lange (two-time German Openwater Swim National Champion), the Spaniard Fernando Santana (recent Silver Medal winner at the Austrian Openwater Championships), and, of course, Mr. and Mrs. Pemulis of GWMD fame.

With Helga in good hands, our heroes jumped into the beautiful turquoise crystalline waters of the false lake. You may have previously read that the water looks gross but that was fake news it turns out because the water was glorious. I'm sure you could have drank from it (before all those gross swimmers contaminated it over the course of 1+ hour, that is) as it was so clean. Because of the sandy bottom and the hot mid-day sun, the water appeared as an azure-tinted lagoon that you would more likely find in Aruba or Jamaica (ooo I wanna take ya to Bermuda, Bahama, come on pretty Mama) and on this fine day of late-Spring heat, jumping into the inviting waters was a beautiful reprieve before the action got under way.

Before there was any time to think in any detail about the race ahead, the proverbial gun went off (I think it was just a countdown over the loud-speaker actually) and the race was under way. I can't speak for Joelle (she is free to write her own account of said events whenever she so chooses) but Pemulis had a simple strategy for this more-or-less "out and back" event (NB: the route was basically a highly distorted oblong and at the half-way point (where you've kind of done the "out" and a tiny bit "over") you get out of the water for just a few seconds and run through a chip-time catcher so they can get your half-way time and to make sure that no yahoos out there can cheat the system) where on the "out" portion he would just swim easy to make sure the distance would be doable (man that out portion was LONG and seemed like it would never ever ever ever ever ever ever [etc x 10] end) and then on the way back try to go "fast" (as much as Pemulis could ever swim "fast"). The strategy worked out pretty nicely. Interestingly enough, however, his out time turned out to be almost identical to his "back" time. But there are many confounding variables here such as being able to swim in a straight line and if the half-way point is really at the half-way point, etc. But anyways, swimming out was a harrowing undertaking and mentally was just exhausting both because it was just soooooo long and you knew that whatever you were doing then you had to do again once you finally got to that dreamed-of half-way point (so in other words completely different from any other half-way point in any other race).

Some highlights:

- The number of participants was pretty close to being absolutely ideal. In the Vizille Aquathlon of 2012 there were I think at most 50 competitors and they were mainly real swimmers. This meant that for people like Pemulis you were kind of our there on your own for 4 km of swimming which if anyone doesn't already know is a really long way and there's no one to draft off of and you wonder if you're going the wrong way or if the race has long-ago ended. Conversely, in a big triathlon with more than a thousand people there are just too many people and you get slowed down or bashed up or both. This race had a good number of people distributed amongst different abilities and you had room to swim but also people to draft off of.

- Sighting was very nice due to a couple of factors: (1) the route was basically swimming around the whole rectangle of the lake and so on the way out you were along one bank of the water and on the way back you were along the other one. You therefore always knew where you were with respect to the intended race route; and (2) there was an underwater rope for connecting buoys for rowing races that ran parallel to the banks of the lake the entire way both out and back. This was perfect for sighting because you could just follow that rope by looking down as you were swimming and didn't have to waste much energy lifting your head up out of the water and making sure that the big turning buoy in the distance was still in your sites (at least you didn't have to that often).

- Even though the half-way point water exit only lasts a few moments having that brief rest for your arms was extremely helpful. I felt a lot more fresh as I started swimming back home after briefly exiting the water. Further, they had a table with cups of water which I hadn't expected and which was also obviously quite useful.

The Results

In the end we did OK. First, our results for the 3.86 km swim from Ironman Kalmar in 2012: Joelle = 1:10:58, Pemulis = 1:10:53 (pretty crazy how close we came out of the water, eh? there were more than 1500 people in that event and everyone looks the exact same in a wetsuit and swimcap). And before showing our results from last-last weekend, don't forget a couple of factors: (1) Joelle has gone swimming maybe twice this entire year while I [Pemulis, in case it wasn't abundantly obvious] have gone probably 50 times or more; (2) you can in theory try a little harder in a swim-only race because you don't have to save any energy for any small follow-up events like for example a 180 km bike ride or a marathon; (3) this race was 4 km rather than the IM's "3.86" so it was an extra 140 m; and (4) with way fewer swimmers you probably get less of a "drafting/whirlpool" effect and thus theoretically might end up slower for the same amount of effort. Without further ado: Joelle = 1:14:53, Pemulis = 1:10:41. Not bad! Joelle was one of the top finishers in her age category having swam less than a handful of times since having a baby and Pemulis beat his IM time by 12 seconds while swimming an extra 140 m. Fun times had by all, in other words.

What's next

After a successful openwater swim the blog heroes continued their training with some exhaustion-inducing workouts on the bike and in their running sneakers this past weekend. Time will tell whether their bodies will make it to the other side fully intact...

June Fish

Don't look now but there's something new on the GWMD! We might have missed some key events so far in 2017 but we're at least here now to give you the highly anticipated preview of tomorrow's Oberschleißheim 4 km swim race! This one promises to be a doozy. You'll no doubt have memories of the world-famous Oktoberfestlauf which has been featured more than once I'm sure here on this particular site. Pemulis and Joelle have been multi-year participants and have even both made visits to the associated podium and partaken in Erdinger Weißbier post-race refreshment more than twice. Well, if you're at all familiar with that race and its environs then you will quickly become acclimated to the setup and everything of tomorrow's Langstrecken Schwimmen München because they share the same venue! Whereas the Oktoberfestlauf is a running race that has participants running around the Olympic Rowing lake, the Langstrecken Schwimmen München is a swimming race where we swim right through it! That's right, that disgusting water that you look at as you're huffing and puffing on your second loop of the Oktoberfest run and briefly thinking "I'm so tired and sweaty and boiling hot and I would just love to jump in that (at first) inviting-looking water" and then you quickly realize it looks kind of pretty dirty and you change your mind and finish the race and just drown yourself in Erdinger Alkoholfrei instead. Yes, that's the water we'll be swimming in tomorrow. And it turns out that's all I have to say about tomorrow's swim festivities and Helga has yet to wake up from her nap so you might be in for a treat and have the option to read about other topics that will be featured just below...

What else is new around here, you ask? Let's see... Pemulis, Joelle, and Helga will finally be moving into their new place in about 1.5 months time. The new neighbourhood doesn't seem to have much to offer compared to Haidhausen (their current haunt) and the home itself unfortunately clearly requires a lot of work but hopefully it will all work out. Before the big move, however, this here protagonist-family is shortly on their way (again) to... Italy! But this time they won't be going to the fake Italy where people speak German with Austrian accents; instead, they are heading to the real Italy where people sit around in the sun, eat pasta and cheese, drink wine and espresso, and hopefully have kind older Italian ladies taking care of their children. The Pemulis family will leave by car from München for 5 sun-filled days at the end of June in the beautiful wine (and various other Italian food/drink products) region of Piemonte. They will be guests at a real live functioning farm (so novel since they've never stayed on a farm before) and they will partake in meals featuring some of the finest foods to ever grace God's Green Earth. Following this, they will travel some 40 minutes west to the town of La Morra where they will stay at a winery for a couple of nights. But this isn't just any winery. This is the very same one at which Joelle spent some unforgettable nights 15 years ago as a spoiled vacationing camp counsellor away from the Swiss rich-kids sleep-over-camp. Exciting times await. Finally, they will decamp from Piemonte and head north back towards Switzerland/France where they will meet up with Pemulis's sister Claudia (I guess that will be her alter-ego here) and Claudia's husband Jim [?]. There they will stay in a rented Chalet just outside of Chamonix featuring world-renowned views of the epic Mont Blanc. It will be a trip for the ages! (they hope)...

And now it looks like there's even time for an Ironman training update. Status? If we're following the DEFCON graduated levels of readiness scale then I would venture to estimate that we're sitting around a DEFCON 2 level (remember that DEFCON 5 is full-on nuclear war-level readiness). The big swim [see supra, para. 1] tomorrow should be good for assessing the swim DEFCON level and we don't need any particular events/tests/whatever to assess that both the biking and running need a lot of work still. However, things could be worse! We have been biking and running and though it would be nice if we could have done more than we have done, I'd say things are more-or-less acceptable at this point. But don't be holding your breath for any breakthrough performances, please.

Und... It's time to wake up Helga! Peace.

post-script: here's a picture from January (her hair is way longer now...)