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I'd like to say how excited I was to "take the plunge" for special Olympics but looking out my window at my frozen backyard pond that morning, I started to question my sanity. Do sane people actually do this every year? We've all seen those older polar bear guys running with glee and diving into the water on TV but it was just fancy special effects right?
I could tell how much my wife was really looking forward to watching me do this stunt because around 9am she started packing up stuff for a picnic with a huge smile on her face. Then we headed out for the hour long drive to the bay with the usual "are we there yet" from the back seat. My kids must have been really looking forward to this too! Now driving down to the bay is usually fun for me because I love fishing. I must have looked at every river and creek we drove by and I started to feel a bit leery because all of them were frozen solid. For a while I kept deluding myself thinking the Chesapeake Bay was huge and it had salt water in it so it would probably be what, 50 degrees right? As we tried to enter Sandy Point State park a police officer waved us over and told us to follow the car in front of us to the overflow parking area, they would bus us in from there he said. Now I've never been to one of these things before but I do fish in the Bay all the time so I know how big the park is and I kept thinking to myself, overflow parking, what for? I never realized that there were so many insane people in the area that were "actually" going to do this!
We parked in the overflowing, overflow lot and went to stand in line with about 300 other people for the busses to show up. It turned out there was only one bus to take us all over to the park area! Luckily we only had to wait 20 minutes but it was a cold 20 minutes and to keep us all warm and in high spirits a couple in front started playing the hokey pokey. This was the first sign, that we were all crazy and our brains had started to freeze.
The Police bus showed up and we all piled in, I'm not sure what the safety limit load is on these types of busses but I can say that we probably broke the Guinness book of world records for most people squashed on a bus. We didn't mind though because with all of us jammed in there we started to warm up!
Our bus driver was great for an Indy 500 driver, and he got us all there safe and sound right in front of the largest crowd I've seen since the Brittney Spears concert.
Surely all these people were just bystanders that wanted to watch the insane people jump into the water right? I checked in and got my polar bear sweatshirt while my kids watched everyone walking around. Apparently there was a bikini and thong fashion show that I hadn‘t heard about and many of the "plungers" had worn creative costumes, some even had angels wings. I guess they wanted to fit in when the cold water killed them and they went to heaven.
My family and I walked down to the beach and set out our beach blanket (no umbrella this time!) Then we walked down to the water to see where the "plunging" was to take place. I wish there was some way to really describe my thoughts and feelings when I first saw the water but, it's impossible. Picture it in your minds this way if you can. A large body of ice, except where the coast guards ice breaking ships had broken it up for the "plungers" To get a true picture of this you would have to fill your bathtub with ice cubes, only then could you fully appreciate my joy at this moment in time. This was the second sign of insanity.
Two hours later after listening to 2,700 people chanting plunge plunge plunge, we finally did it. We all took off and dove through the ice cubes into the bay with my 9 year old daughter chasing us the whole way yelling GO DAD! This was the third and final insanity warning.
Let me take a moment do describe how it feels to dive into 32 degree water. I would say it's invigorating and a true once in a life time event. In a way it is because, the water is so cold it feels like it's burning your skin, the good part is your body quickly shuts down all rational thought and you don't feel it for long. Later, when I was able to carry on a legible conversation, my wife and daughter told me I did quite well and that they weren't surprised that I actually went through with it. Now this could only mean two things they have either, always questioned my sanity or, that I cared SO much about raising money for the special Olympics they never doubted I was going through with it. I prefer the latter but I may be wrong. After all would a sane man actually do this? My 11 year old son just thinks I'm crazy, at least he doesn't have any doubts.
The 2005 polar bear plunge raised $625,000 for the special Olympics and regardless of my comical description that you just read. I am proud, to have been involved with such an outstanding group of people for this event. Who knows, I may even be out there again next year with everyone else, screaming at the top of our lungs, Plunge Plunge Plunge!
My "Plunge" experiance
by Henry Bockman
