Met up with Alison at Elk Neck State Park. She's always so good about coming to Annapolis so I thought I would do the road trip this time. We headed to the Boat Ramp about 10am and prepared to swim from a small beach, which of course is posted "No Swimming." The water temp measured 51.8 from the dock and 52.5 at the beach so we averaged it out to 52 (ish).
I waded in to my waist and was having much difficulty deciding to take the plunge. Wasn't sure I could do it. I splashed my face and shoulders and even dunked down in the water before I finally got the guts to push off and swim. After keeping my head up for a bit, I put my face in the water and swam. The cold headache was immediate and in general it felt like pin pricks on my skin.
At 60 degrees and even 54 after about 200 yards the disconfort went away. This time it did not. I doubted I would swim far at all, but we both gave it it a shot. After a while I decided to swim to the half mile turn around point Alison told me she and Lanie did in the past. But Alison was a little bit behind me and I worried about separating too much so I circled back. Eventually we met up and swam to the dock together. At that point, Alison got out and I swam another loop to finish off a mile. I would say after about 3/4 of a mile my headache was gone and I felt acclimated. But truthfully I was glad to get out after a mile. It took about an hour to fully stop shaking. Blueberry pancakes helped.
Good job! Cold water hardening. It's the best!
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