This morning I went to Bountiful Lake at 7:30 and threw in the thermometer thinking it would probably be 60 or maybe 59. It was 54.
I got in up to my waist and it was freezing. The wind was blowing and I was struggling mentally going full the full dunk. After standing there for a couple minutes hoping I could build up the guts to do it, I ended up going back to the car.
Swimming alone in open water is risky, swimming alone in 54 degree water without previous cold water acclimation is stupid. I thought about Cyrise Sanders' hypothermia incident as well as last weekend's fatal accident at Ragnar and realized the risk just wasn't worth it. So I'm done with Open Water for this year. I'll pick it up again next spring and hopefully get more cold water acclimation before my full year training for 2012.
1 comment:
Holy crap! 54?! I can't believe it got so cold so fast.
I swam a mile and a half once in water close to that temperature without a wetsuit and it took me two or three hours to warm back up. It was pretty scary.
We'll have to keep tabs on the temperature next year. Maybe we can start up again in the spring.
Post a Comment