Slush Mile

One of the merfolk decided he wanted to swim a mile in cold water - there's an official swim that's called an Ice Mile, which is done in water at or below 5 c (41 f) wearing just a swim suit, cap and goggles. That's hard core! He decided that trying it in a little bit warmer weather would be a better idea, and he dubbed it the "slush mile". Today was the day! The water was about 50 f, the sun was out, and there was pretty much no wind - perfect weather. He had a bunch of safety features set up including someone in a wetsuit swimming along with him, a warm emergency car, tea, cookies, a cheering section, music, etc. And, a bunch of us came to cheer him on and swim a little bit with him.

He was going to do a longer swim across the lake with a kayaker, but then decided it was better to stay close to shore. There are two signs that are 75 yards apart, which worked well because he just needed to do 24 laps between them. I joined the swimmers to do a little jaunt too. The cold was hard on my hands and feet, but the worst was my face at the start. Once I had gone about 3 or 4 laps, though, my face numbed up nicely, and I was fine to swim. I spent some time doing mental math - I hit 6 laps and that was 1/4 of the way, and then 8 laps was 1/3 and then at 10 I was like "just two more laps and I'll be half way."

As I was swimming, I felt really good! My arms were cold, but in this kind of interesting power-numb way. I've been going swimming after work in the dark, which is extra dark, so the sun made everything feel so nice. By 10 I knew that I could do the mile too, and so that's what I did! It took me about 55 minutes. The last lap or two I was starting to get a little bit of a claw hand on my left hand, which I knew wasn't a good thing. But, it was still functioning and I was so close I just finished it up. When I got out of the water everyone was cheering for me, and helped me with my dryrobe and water for my feet. Which was a good thing because I was a little stumbly. 

I would definitely do more long swims like that - probably on the weekend so I can go during daylight. I liked the longer duration because I could get really into the zone. It didn't feel like it took an hour - more like 20 minutes or so! Obviously the time/distance would need to get shorter as the water gets colder... And it would be nice if I learned to swim faster so I could do the distance in less time...

All and all, a nice accomplishment!