M.O.T.H.E.R.S. take a Penguin Plunge during the Nelson Bay Challenge 2005 (Date: May 7... Water Temp: 58*)

Miriam's Recap of the Day...

What an EXPERIENCE!!!!!!! I will remember this race for many, many, MANY years. This was most definitely a James Davis classic! Here's a few highlights from my experience....

SWIM: The swim was ..... breath-taking (LITERALLY!!!) I had to stop twice, roll over on my back and try to force air past my throat. It felt as though a sea monster had wrapped tightly around my chest and was squeezing so hard that a single molecule of air could not find it's way to my lungs. When I wasn't gasping for air, I was gagging from water intake. I'm quite certain that the tide dropped a good 2 inches just from the amount of water I removed from the bay by mouth. Once I was able to get enough air to my bloodstream, my arms felt like pulling some water for a change, rather than just flailing through the air and floating past my hips through the water. When my swim stroke finally started to feel normal again, I realized that my feet had frozen!! So.... I started kicking (yes, Bill, KICKING) just to try and thaw my feet out before I was required to run on them to retrieve my bike.

Transition 1: My feet were still frozen when I hit the ground running but this turned out to be a positive. I couldn't feel those little prickly things sticking into the bottom of my feet while I was running to get my bike. However, cramming frozen feet into biking shoes is a challenge all to itself.

BIKE: My feet remained frozen throughout the bike segment. I NEVER felt the inside of my cleats at all... NEVER!! Other than that, the bike segment seemed quite normal. Bike like hell to the bridge, say "HEY" to Brooke at the turn around, and bike like hell back to transition.

Transition 2: The "cramming frozen feet challenge" continued with my running shoes and I took off from transition, hoping to feel my feet soon.

RUN: My running stride felt normal from the knees up, but the running on numb feet felt REALLY WEIRD! When I was returning to the top of the bridge on my way to the finish, I began to get the feeling back in my feet and realized I was running in pebbles or gravel or something. I couldn't believe I had been running the course with rocks in my shoes. With about 3/4 of a mile from the finish line, I didn't feel the rocks anymore. Instead, it felt like I was running with wadded up footies at the end of my toes. Then, I really thought I was nuts!! How could I cram my feet into my racing flats with footies in there and not know that!!! (Oh, yeah, my feet were frozen at the time.) I crossed the finish line, walked to my bike, took off my shoes and found NO FOOTIES, NO ROCKS, Just my sweet little feet that were begging for a hug of warmth.