Well that was fun!!! Kind of reminded me of the LOST Beer Mile that many of the same crowd did a few months ago… more guts than brains… and way too much fun! I like it.
And apparently so did everyone else. Lots of nervous smiles before… and lots of squeals and goofy grins after!
We had 35 dippers show up this year (up from about 25 last year, it keeps growing!)… and about the same number of supporters as dippers. Of course, by supporters I mean friends and relatives that were too sane to dip… but weren’t going to miss a chance for a good laugh! They were not disappointed. We had the die-hard LOSTies, and friends of LOSTies, we had a few Connor’s Runner’s out too, we even had my son Dylan and his posse of ex-NCAA varsity swimmers up from Boston and Baltimore (note: Reed was sure to point out the “ex” part of the title, as I think some of them are feeling the transition from school to the “real world”!)… but all in all we just had a bunch of brave/stupid, fun-loving people out for a dip!!!
And it was cold. We’d had a great Christmas, nice and warm, up to +10C or so… but it didn’t hold until Jan 1. It was only about -3C or so, but the wind took it to a very chilly -10C! Oh… and the water?!… it was 1C. About as cold as Lake Ontario gets, given that it doesn’t freeze over.
But at the stroke of 12 noon we all stripped down to our bikini’s and speedo’s… and with the 10 second countdown by the crowd… we all dashed in! Darren and Brett had set up the carpet (thanks guys!) and were standing in the water waiting for us! Mind you Darren had a 7mm wetsuit on and Brett had hip-waders on over his wetsuit, so they didn’t sew what all the fuss was about! Most everyone just dunked and got the hell out… but I saw Miguel and Art do a few strokes, so I did too… but then there are the Polar Boys… Madhu, Mark and Loren. They are cut from a bit different cloth.
You see Madhu is going to swim the Strait of Magellan on about Jan 24, 2015. And what is the Strait of Magellan, you ask? Well it is the Strait that the great explorer, Magellan discovered to get around the tip of South America. It is a passage through a series of
islands at the southern tip of Chile, between Chile and Antarctica. The section of the Strait that he is going to swim is about the same distance as an Ironman swim… about 3.8 km. And the water will be about between about 4C and 8C… so practicing in 1C water is excellent training!?! Mark and Loren are his training partners and have been there with him all the way… swimming in this water with him that is! 2 weeks ago the 3 of them set a new record for themselves and swam for about 12 minutes in 1C water!!! Consider most of us were in for less than 30 seconds yesterday and how that felt!!! Also consider when they talk about the Titanic sinking that most people survived between about 5 – 10 minutes in that water… and it literally could not have been any colder! Pretty amazing.
But last week Madhu tried for the Ice Mile. Which is pretty much as it sounds… swimming 1 mile (1.6 km) in water of 5C or less. Naturally he chose the “or less” and attempted it in 1C water, the hardest possible swim (beyond that it’s just called “skating”). And you might think that the difference between 5C and 1C isn’t much (about 4 degrees using my math skills), but it is huge when one is swimming in it. The difference is exponential. To swim 12 minutes in 1C might be the equivalent of swimming 2 hours in 5C!!! Anyway… he didn’t complete the Ice Mile. But he did swim a total of 29 minutes and 19 seconds without stopping, for 1.2 km (easily completing the Ice Kilometer!) and was in the water for 34 minutes and 38 seconds… in 1C water!!!
But I digress. We were really cold too. But just not in the same ball park as Madhu, Mark and Loren!
And it all had a happy ending… we went back to our usual post-LOST swim coffee shop, Brett’s cafe “Bean There” and all warmed up and shared a few laughs. Quite a few. Because in the end… that’s what it’s all about.
So with the first LOST event of the year out of the way, let me wish all you LOSTies a Happy New Year!!! May you all have a healthy, happy, prosperous and fun 2015!!!
Special thanks to: Darren “The Neoprene Kid” Osborne, Brett & Lambrina for opening up the shop to all the LOSTies!, and Mike Morton for his awesome video and constant support for LOST and everyone else that took the great pics!
See you all in a few months… for the next LOST swim of the season!!! (and I promise… it won’t be any colder than it was for the first swim of the year!)
Cheers,
Rob