Great day woke up and it wasn’t quite 4 degrees out, just the the right weather for a little swim in the lake.  as part of Special Olympics Penguin Plunge..  

Diane and Gabe headed up to Bolton for Gabe’s USASA competition   .. I bundled up and headed to Mexicali for a little ‘training’ . This is the second time I’ve lunged with the fine folks at Mexicali..  I couldn’t make it last year because I was off at a conference and gtting ready to leave for The Colony. These guys go every year.. I think Nick said we raised about 3000 dollars for the Special Olympics.. I think that includes the $325 I raised.. (thansk to those of you who contributed.. those of you who didn’t I thin you still can at http://www.firstgiving.com/johncohn)

..Training this year included a shot of Erin’s homemade maple scotch.. not my normal breakfast fare.. but very yummy and warming..   We had about 12 folk, I think.. 4 johns , 3 nicks and a smattering of kyles, amelias and lances..

Here I am with John 2 (I’m John 4).. they though he was my kid..   must be the smile  🙂

I chugged a redbull just for motivation.. then we all climbed into a rented taxi van..

We were packed and toasty (and soem of us were tasted).. all behatted and feelign good in the ‘brisk’ morning..

Nick 1 had gotten us all registered last night so we new we were going inearly as team 5.. we even marked ourselves..

OK.. here’s where all the interesting pictures should be… but.. of course.. I didn’t have my camerra.. .. I’ll get some pictures fro the folks who stayed dry.. but for now.. just imagine:

– a tent ful of naked and nearly naked guys switching from mid winter to mid summer in 30 seconds,
– a quick jog to the staging tent lining up as the fith team to go in
– abotu 100 screaming ,chanting and chearing scantily clad men and woemnt making noise to keep their . spirits and temperature up . It was so noisy that Erin passed out earplugs.. I declined.. I thin noise is an anesthetic..
– with in 10 minutes it was our turn to plunge.. The door opens.. and we trot out into the cold.. The air temp was about 10 by that point.. sunny and bright and not bad.. Erin. Chelsea and I had the Mexicali banner.. e.. lance was in front.. everyone else behind..   
– they’d used a backhoe to clear enough ice for us to actually ru into the lake instead of over it..   In we went on the boat loading ramp.. The water was about 34 degrees I think.. actully.. not bad at all.. I love cold water.. so this wasn’t even a shock.. we plunged in .. the rest of the team came after..
– A couple of us tossed SamStones in the water while we were in.. then we pivoted with the banner and marched out majesticly.. I sear .. I wasn’t even cold !
– they handed us all towels.. then we jogeed back to the men and ladies tents…   
– more naked guys.. now shivering and blue.. but very vrey happy.. I found a swatch of less nakeedness and dug out my camera..

The we all scrambled to get out of our wet things, find our dry things and sort them out from the layers and layres of OPS (other peoples stuff). I wanted ot make sure I didn’t take anyone elses dry stuff.. that would SO suck..

No wwarm.. I went out and watched a couple of teams go out and back..

We tried to gather the team.. toook us a while.. I found Erin and Chelsea and then found the others.

Kyle  took a really bad fall on the way in.. and was bleading and hurting pretty much.. he was still smiling though

Then back in the van for the trip back to the restaurant.. They passed around some blackberry brandy.. but .. I couldn’t figure out how to pour it in…