One Hour Postal 2012

This morning I carpooled with Goody and Michelle down to Pleasant Grove for the Utah Polar Bear.  The website announced the date for 2013 which I thought was really odd seeing that the event for 2012 hasn't even happened yet.  But I did see

"In a unified effort to gather donations for local charities, we will be hosting the Utah Polar Bear Plunge at Utah Lake on January 14th, 2012! Come Swim, or come watch. Either way, bring in the new year with a SPLASH and support a good cause!"

The facebook page did NOT have anything on it stating that the 2012 event was cancelled, just again, the 2013 date.  Why didn't they PLASTER both their website and facebook page that the 2012 event was cancelled?  And what about my $35 donation?  How do I know that it's actually gonna go to where I intended it?  Seems extremely unprofessional!  I got a text back from them saying:

Sorry!  The polar bear swim was postponed several months ago.  The details have been on our website?  Sorry for any trouble.

Josh collecting one of the boulders that
didn't make it through
the ice.

Michelle 

Very lame.  If I cancelled the GSL swim by just putting up the 2013 date instead of sending out emails, and updating facebook and website saying "THE 2012 event is cancelled!!!!", or giving money back, then I'd be in big trouble.  That's a terrible example of event planning and execution.

Anyway, we made the best of it and Josh and Goody got busy trying to bust a hole in the 3 inch thick ice right near the shore.  After about a dozen boulder slams on the ice, there was a small hole big enough to just sit in the 12 inches of water.

Josh soaking it up in the ice
water

It actually was quite pleasant.  

Josh was first to get in and he laid back in the water with his legs under the ice.  Goody and Michelle also got in.  I was in a crappy mood and figured I might as well get in too.

I got my shoes off and got ready while Goody was in (so I don't have a pic of Goody, hoping Josh posts some too).  The ice on my feet was actually pretty painful, but getting in the water wasn't that bad.  Oh well.  It was fun getting together for this even though it was highly disappointing not participating in the full blown event.  Another guy showed up who also was expecting to do this, I forgot his name, but he took his turn to get in the little hole in the ice for a picture.  So at least we weren't the only ones that got duped.

Goody and Josh weren't gonna
just come down here without
some kind of cold water pain!  

After that we drove back and dropped of Michelle at home, and Goody and I went to SDRC where I was going to do my one hour postal swim for the year.  I was hoping to get at least 4200 yards, but thanks to Goody's cheering and pacing, I was able to get 4,350 yards exactly in 1 hour.  Not to bad considering the facial drag I've got going, well, and the fact that I haven't done a whole lot of speed training.  I'm turning into a fitness swimmer and not a competitive swimmer.  Which I'm OK with.  I just can't expect to be super speedy anymore.  It was cool having Goody there and he was giving me handsignals underwater and yelling at me underwater which made me pick it up just a bit.  But I never felt really with it on the swim and was hurting right from the start.  I did do a 100 yard warmup before the swim, and that's probably where I went wrong. I should have done an easy 1000 first, but I felt like the day was wasting away and needed to get going.

Here's the detailed data from my swim which was captured on my swimsense.

Total yards:

100 easy
4350 fast
50 breast


4500 yards total