1 July 09: True Love, or The GCM Swims the Birthday Set

Monday was my and the German Cycling Machine’s three-month anniversary. I am not usually one to keep track of such things, but they were on my mind since Monday was also my parents’ THIRTY-FIVE-YEAR wedding anniversary. And they still like each other and go on dates and stuff! So in an attempt to wrap my head around this feat, of which I am in no small degree of awe, I was wondering how long I had been with the GCM. This is how we came up with three months, which in my world, is a long time–one-fourth of a year, or three ironmans, long, in fact:

The conversation went something like this,

Hillary: “Babe, when was our first date?”

Maiki: “Mooloolaba?” (referring to spectating at the World Cup which was just down the road when we were living in Noosa, Australia)

Hillary: “I think so too . . . “

Maiki: “I missed my sixty-k (km) bike and you missed your two-k swim.”

Desperate times called for desperate measures, as he was leaving Noosa–assumedly for good–the next day. What was a girl to do? Workouts were missed by both parties so we could go out to dinner. This was March 29th.

So Monday I received a card which read, amongst other things, “I enjoy every moment with you.”

While I was looking over at the poor guy underneath the water during our 10-kilometer swim, I was thinking about how he probably wished he could take back those words just then! As I have previously mentioned, the GCM and the pool are not friends. The boy loves to train, and he would bike and run all day, every day if he could; but swimming just seems to be something he does so that he can get paid to do the other two. He grudgingly swims nearly every day when I am around, but last weekend, when I was in Belgium, he didn’t set foot in the water. In fact I think he and his mates even met for a poolside coffee, but there was no swimming involved.

I have often wondered if there was such a thing as a boy who does what he says he is going to do, even if it means doing something he doesn’t want to do . . . On Sunday, while I was driving home from my race in Belgium, my mind turned immediately to what physical challenge I could look forward to in my near future. I knew I would be taking it relatively easy for a couple of days after the race, so I thought this might be the perfect time to cash in my “voucher” for a birthday swim (100×100s), as the session would make me feel like I’d done some real training without totally smashing me or digging a hole for these legs.  Unable to wait until I got home, I shot a message with my idea over to the GCM. After some facetious complaining, he ultimately responded by saying that I had a voucher (part of his birthday present to me), and that whatever I decided, he would oblige. After permission from Coachie, it was on for Tuesday. . . And this is how Hillary learned that the aforementioned type of guy does, in fact, exist.

He even recruited his friend Clemens (Coenen, top amateur in Kona last year) to join us. Clem was excused after 50, though,  since he is racing Challenge Roth next weekend.

He did, however, leave us this lovely note upon his departure.

The Cycling Machine completed the Birthday Set like a Swimming Machine. For my part, I pretty much felt like I was drowning beginning at #1, all the way through #100; I’ve been sick since my race on Sunday (Yes, I know what you are thinking: “Surprise, surprise!”), so having the Cycling Machine swimming stroke for stroke next to me for 10 kilometers defnitely kept me on task. I knew I had nothing to complain about, since he was in the process of adding the distance of an ironman swim to his previous longest single swim session.

The “after” photo: note that the GCM’s pained expression from the “before” photo has disappeared….

The highlight: newly-acquired tan lines–not easy to come by in Germany, even in the summertime.

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