Polar Bear Swim 2009

I have made this a yearly event, throwing my semi-naked body into the frigid grasp of the arctic ocean. For no good reason. I've done it 3 times now, missing out only last year because I was about 4 months pregnant and it wouldn't have been the best activity to partake in. You can read about 2007's dip here.

I'm sure it seems not a big deal to you people down south in your comfy warm climate, but first of all it wasn't the warmest day up here and secondly as Meaghan puts it on her blog, "reminder the ice just melted about 2 weeks ago". There is still snow in various areas as well. It's cold and the water is even colder then you can imagine, unless of course you've gone in before, in which case you totally understand me. So yeah, it's brain freeze cold. It is the arctic ocean.The trick here is to "dip", not actually swim. Run in, run out. This time I wore shoes instead of crocs so I didn't have to turn right back around and search for them floating away. This time I used my brain. Get in, get out, don't dally around.
In case you were wondering how cold it was, here is a close up from the photo above. I think our faces say it all, (*insert swear word here*)!It was a good time, I'd do it again. I can't explain why, as the part of my brain that's supposed to make sense of things isn't making the decisions when I'm running into the arctic ocean.

Don't forget to check out Morena's post about our adventure, as well as Meaghan's.