Grenoble: A Race Report! Winterlaufserie München 15 km

A perennial feature of the GrenobleWMD blog since its inception nearly eleven years ago has been the fan-favourite (probably) "Race Report". From the Roanne-Villerest Aquathlon Longue Distance (rather photo-heavy) to the Short Update (detailing the 2013 Annecy Marathon) to the Waldperlachlauf 20km of 2014 and everything in between (including the first-ever-on-the-blog sort of mention of a race but which consisted of just two photos: the ASPA run), we like to report on our races here at GWMD HQ. While we've been eerily silent on last summer's epic 68 km Zugspitz Super Trail race through the German and Austrian Alps (we will get to it), another race happened around these parts just this past weekend (well, long weekend) and if you'd like to grab your favourite drink, sit back, relax, and let yourself drift away into the ambiance of the Munich Olympic Park where last Friday (yes, you read that correctly: Friday [!!!]) the park filled up with fans, athletes, and people who were just trying to enjoy a Friday in the park and made no effort whatsoever to stay out of the way of what was clearly a race alike for the running of the 15 km edition of the Munich Winter Run Series...

Our first experience with the Winterlaufserie München was way back in 2013 for the Nikolauslauf where Joelle crushed the 10 km race in 42:45. It wasn't until 2015, however, that we both participated in the 20 km edition (the 10 km takes place in early December, the 15 km in early January, and the 20 km in early February). We participated in the 20 km a couple of other times over the years I believe but were either never around for or the stars hadn't aligned for some other reason, but, for the first time ever, just a few short days ago now, I participated in the 15 km edition...

The race rather snuck up on me as you might say. We had the idea that we'd each do one of them (in fact originally I was going to do the 10 km back in December but was sick that day so Joelle took my spot) but then you have a kid and all of a sudden seven years go by and you realize you have a race in a couple of days and you haven't exactly kept up your training the way a childless 30 year old might have. But no matter. I still wanted to see what I've got.

The answer? Not much! You can't see all 15 splits on this screen, but it shows the race map (3 loops of that 5 km course) and my progression towards slowness. I did speed up again for the last 2-3 km and finished with a time of 1:11 for a 4:41 average pace which isn't dead last place, but it is pretty close.

But it was a fun race. I think I put in a good show for my current abilities and it has inspired me to try to get in shape again. Maybe even come up with some other race that I won't forget about until a few days before and I will make a training plan and do some workouts and all that sort of stuff that you say you'll do months ahead but as the weeks go by and your kids are sick and you're busy with work and you're tired for a whole handful of other reasons you don't actually do. But just maybe this time I will!

But anyways. After the race we traveled the short distance to the Münchener Freiheit area in the posh Schwabing district where we spent 2 luxurious months courtesy of Bill Gates (more or less) after we first arrived in Munich nearly 10 years ago and Microsoft put us up in temporary housing in the area basically to tease us at where we could only live if I one day became a vice president at said company. We had a nice lunch at Emmi's the all vegan restaurant (believe it or not -- the "nice lunch" part I mean) and the kids didn't even behave that badly.

The nice part about the race being on a Friday (it was Three Kings Day by the way so it was a holiday explaining why they would put a race on a Friday morning) is that we had the whole weekend ahead still. On Saturday I took Helga to the pool for the first time in years and bonus: it was basically completely empty. Heinrich got to test out his new wheels (his scooter) in the sunshine and on Sunday we laid low, fortifying ourselves for the onslaught that would come the very next day of getting everyone awake by 7:00, then dressed, fed, and out the door, and then having to work the whole day for the first time in three weeks.

Until next time.