Free Annual Polar Bear Plunge

Happy New Year!
This event is crazy and raw. There are no frills. No noticeable sense of order.
I went because I heard Darth Vader would be there but I left with even crazier (and colder) memories.
It was 23°F with a windchill of 11°F. It snowed buckets yesterday and continues to snow today. I wore smart wool pants and top, jeans, long-​sleeved t-​shirt, long down coat, and the rest of normal, outdoor attire for winter weather. These crazies took swigs from their fifths, stripped off their pajama pants and blanket panchos, and walked right up to the icy lake.
The lake was LITERALLY ice. Not just icy cold. It was frozen.
They brought blankets and heat packs for their hands. Some of them had water shoes. That was the extent of their preparation.
This unorganized gaggle of crazy drunk people discussed the risks of breaking the ice and potentially being stuck under. There was no ambulance on hand. No leader to make a resounding decision. So one man must have said, «F– you all! I’m doing this!» because he broke a hole in the ice at the edge of the lake and sat down in it.
My video:
Then more people followed him!
My video:
Then my fingers froze off and I had to stop taking pictures and videos. My fingers hurt so bad that I made the game-​time decision to leave. As I left, I heard and saw more people taking the plunge — even people who were previously ambivalent were taking turns.
All I gotta say is that I’m glad that nobody died and that their insanity made for a memorable start to the new year!

Sounds crazy?!?
It IS!
But since most of us went all wild the night before, why not just go on with insanity and just dig deeper in?
January 1, 2012. Air temperature around noon: 30. Feels like: 17. Wind gusts of 45 mph.
I arrived miserable on the beach, but left with a huge smile on my face, (frozen feet) and the sense that I started the year with a great kick!
PROS:
— bragging rights for the rest of the year
— «cool» pictures opportunities
— hang over cure, without the calories associated with eggs, bacon, pancakes and donuts
— a way to bond with your crazy fellow Chicogoans
— no preparation; just show up, strip and go!
CONS:
— it’s…cold, let’s say.
— there are some definite eyesores on the beach, most notably a «New Year Baby» wearing a giant diaper and a top-​hat that has lost all sensibility to the elements by the look of him (picture included. Look at your own risk)
— it’s cold… men may experience some shrinkage problems. Cross that: men WILL experience shrinkage problems. Sometimes it’s good to be a lady.
— you get wet, and it’s cold and at some point you feel like your feet are going to fall off. Good news: they won’t.
Hey, kids: One only lives once…

Running marathons, when you really break it down, is a really dumb thing to do. To put yourself through the grueling, and typically very painful experience of running a race that commemorates some dude who over 2000 years ago DIED from doing the very same thing, is just a bit nuts.
Training for such an event, at least in the beginning stages before you hurt yourself, is actually quite noble! It gets one in shape, becomes a constructive hobby for many and is a great way to stay active and healthy for a very long time. Human beings after all were meant to distance run in order to outlast our prey which would eventually keel over with a heart attack or be so winded that they’d just stop moving before we inevitably finished the job ourselves.
But marathon running seems like such a natural activity in comparison to what a great number of people willingly and happily choose to do every New Year’s Day right around the strike of noon.
These idiots (I now count myself as one) go swimming in the frigid cold of Lake Michigan off the beach at North Avenue.
Unlike marathons– there’s really no training or preparation for such a moronic act.
Unless of course, you are crazy (crazy people are different from idiots) and you happen to do this thing more than once a year…
It’s a pretty simple process– show up, get nearly nude (and if you have some cut-​off jorts like Tobias Funke, wear them!), run into the water, let your bones chill for the 22 seconds or so that you are in contact with the lake (get most of your head and body under, or else it doesn’t count!!!), run out of the lake, scream the most obvious thing you can think of like «OH MY GOD, IT’S COLD!» or «I CAN’T FEEL MY LEGS!», then towel off, get dressed, and leave.
In the midst of all of that it would be a good idea to have a friend around to take some pictures, and if you really want to do any sort of preparation at all– have another friend handy to make you some delicious and warming menudo for after.
You are going to need it!
Lastly, the question was asked if dunking ones self in the icy waters would cure a hang over… My answer is that unlike a quick remedy that masks the pain and makes you feel better, this is just pain on top of pain.
Are you now interested?
Somehow, I have a feeling I’ll be back in 2013.