A physically grueling and mentally taxing daylong endurance race would be challenge enough for most amateur athletes.
But Kathy Kirmayer, a long-distance open-water swimmer, also contends with rough currents, occasional jellyfish and the threat of hypothermia.
“This is what attracted me to these races,” she said. “You can never predict what the conditions are like, so you can’t have these rigorous time goals.”
Instead, she focuses on covering the miles — many of them.
Kirmayer, a Silver Spring resident, swam the Tampa Bay Marathon last month. Although she was part of a six-person relay team, Kirmayer swam about one-third of the distance across the bay herself.
“This was a training swim,” she said of her eight-mile day.
Now she has her sights set on crossing the Long Island Sound in August. That event is a 15-mile swim through deep water with strong waves. And water temperature could be another issue since wet suits are not allowed.
“My biggest challenge might not be the distance but hypothermia,” she said.
Kirmayer, 45, was a freestyle sprinter for the Williams College swim team. Her races then were usually 50 or 100 meters. Occasionally she would go 200 meters, but “only if forced.” She took up long-distance swimming for a new type of challenge.
“Long-distance requires more mental toughness,” she says.
And it offers the chance to keep pushing her limits.
“I like seeing how much I can push my body and how long I can hold it that way. That’s part of the fascination for me. And wanting to go farther and farther — that’s what really motivates me.”
Kirmayer is a partner at Washington law firm Crowell and Moring, where she’s chairwoman of the firm’s commercial litigation group. She is also a single mother with two young children.
Still, she manages to swim at least 5,000 meters five times a week. With all that time in the pool, she doesn’t do much cross training.
“It’s pretty much all swimming,” she said.
But that doesn’t mean it’s all marathons.
Kirmayer says her favorite race is still the Swim for Life race on the Chester River, a July charity event for families with HIV-positive children that she helps organize. Participants can choose to swim from one to five miles in calm river water.
“It’s a very informal race,” she said. Last year, a dog completed the one-mile course.
Like last year, she plans to swim the longest possible distance in the race this year. But Kirmayer is unlikely to be content with a mere five miles. She is considering a solo Tampa Bay Marathon in the future — the 24-miler would be longest warm water race she could do.
“That would be the holy grail,” she said. “But if I make the Long Island swim, I’ll be pretty damn happy.”
