Do a Polar Plunge
On January 31st, I took a short flight up to Michigan to participate in the Special Olympics Polar Plunge! Now is the season that all of these plunges happen, but I was restricted to what weekends I could actually get away.
I had four major rules for the plunge I wanted to do:
It had to be a body of water; no plunge tanks that certain locations have
It had to be an actual jump, not a run into the water like some plunges
It either needed to be an ice cut or ice had to be broken up to get in
It had to be relatively close to an airport with a cheap flight
I went through all of the pictures on their flickr account to see which ones met the first three criteria, then checked my calendar, and then looked at flights. There were a couple good ones, but the one in Clarklake, an hour outside of Detroit, was exactly what I was looking for! I booked a cheapo spirit flight leaving out of Tampa at 6am and then returning before midnight that night.
One fun thing is that I had already purchased concert tickets for Too Many Zooz on January 30th in Jacksonville. Kevin and I went to the show, got home around 12:30am, I slept for a little over two hours, and then woke up to drive to Tampa to catch my flight.
I landed in cold, cold Michigan; there was snow on the ground, temperatures in the teens, but luckily, I was bundled up! I drove to the plunge site to pick up my hoodie that I got for my donation and a wrist band so I could jump and get food after.
The police and fire department had broken up the ice right near the dock and they had set up a water circulator in that area so it didn’t freeze over again before the plunge. I milled around for a while, I was several hours early, and found that I wasn’t actually that super cold. I was wearing a tank top, sweater, arcteryx puffer, my nice TJM slam eddie bauer fleece lined, wind resistant coat, and a hat, so that helped a lot.
I chatted with various people, telling one guy I had come from Florida and he immediately told me I needed to meet another guy to tell him my story. The article is here if you’re interested. I also met this awesome woman named Lisa, who introduced me to her grandson, who is a Special Olympics athlete and his coach, who was wearing a polar bear costume.
At 2pm, it was finally time for the plunge! They announced the groups would go first before the individuals lined up. They also let us know that it was the coldest plunge they had ever had (a week before, one had been canceled because it was too cold) and if anyone was wearing a mask or had something covering their face, they should remove/move it immediately after surfacing because it could freeze to your face by the time you got out of the water.
When the lined started to lessen, I thought – welp, it’s now or never! I set my backpack down near one of the changing trailers and stripped down. Having read up on polar plunges, I knew the less I wore, the better. I had gone back and forth on what I was going to wear, but it came down to packing space. I was taking a backpack and whatever I brought home was going to be wet. I settled on my Borat swimsuit and a swimming cap, because I was not about to let my hair get wet. That seemed like a nightmare scenario in trying to warm up.
I don’t know if it was adrenaline or what, but I felt fine just standing there in my swimsuit. Maybe my skin was too frozen to tell if I was cold? The line moved along and I think I waited about 10 minutes in just my suit. Before I knew it, I was walking onto the dock and being given a countdown to jump!
I plugged my nose and jumped in! It was absolutely exhilarating. There is no other word for it. It was incredible! I surfaced and paddled in a few feet and then the emergency personnel in the water told me I could stand up. I was absolutely numb, but felt amazing!! I would gladly do it again in a heartbeat! Is cold plunging going to be something I try on the regular? Hell nope. I’m a sauna gal. But this was a great experience for a great cause!
