Dear God that's friggin cold!

So today I thought it would be a great idea to bike the long way to Seward Park and then go swimming. Here's the beauty of the internet... You can check the temperature of Lake Washington... online! Since it's been in the mid 70s for the past couple of days, I foolishly thought it would be refreshing to swim in the 63 degree water. Refreshing doesn't even begin to cover it. It was down right cold. I pretty much went into shock when I finally decided to just go for it and start swimming. I had to basically float on my back for a bit until I could get my breathing back to normal. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I did the swim without a wetsuit. Fortunately my upstairs neighbor came with me. She pretty much jumped right in and went for it. Thank God. Because if it were anyone else, I would have shot out of that water like I was a cat who was just put in the tub for a bath. But I got over it and started swimming. I made it to the buoy and back. I wish I knew how far it was. I've heard it's a 1/4 mile out and back and I've also heard it's 1/2 mile out and back. The swim back from the buoy was awful because everything I looked up, I was moving further and further to the left of where we were heading. I now know what it's like to be a salmon just trying to get home to die. I got home and ran into the house turned the hot water in the bath to super hot and sat in the tube until the water got cold. Which wasn't that long since I was already at sub zero temperature. But I definitely feel great for doing the swim. I kick butt!