Learning to be a local

There are two things that everyone should know about me.

One is that I’m a former High School track athlete who still loves to run and walk.

So naturally 5ks are somewhat up my alley though I’d rather walk in those events rather than run.

Two is that I absolutely hate the cold weather, especially when it involves water.

As a track athlete, I had to take – or rather have two people holding me down – ice baths in order to prepare for races.

It was the one thing that I hated the most about track.

So lo and behold my luck when I heard about the 5K Polar Bear Plunge at Blue Hole, which combined the one thing I love and the one thing I hate.

A Wimberley New Years tradition, I decided to take a chance on doing the 5K Polar Bear Plunge knowing my body was going to hate me and will try its best to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Luckily for me, everything started off on the right track.

The morning of New Years Day it was a nice 75 degrees that was still holding off the incoming cold front, so I definitely dodged a major bullet.

In preparation for the race, I made the major, and wise, decision of not trying to run and win the 5K.

Despite being a track athlete in high school, I have not run competitively in eight years and have not prepared my body to handle a 5K.

So I decided to just walk, which was the best decision because I wanted to enjoy walking through town.

After receiving my commemorative t-shirt, I hit the road as the race started.

Not exactly reading the map of what the route the Polar Bear Plunge was going to be, I was pleasantly surprised at what I experienced.

Coming out of Blue Hole Lane onto Old Kyle Road, it brought me great joy to see that the 5K was going straight through the Wimberley Square, though the people waiting in their cars for us to run, or walk, probably didn’t share my sentiment.

After going through the Square and moving to Blue Heron Road, we were cheered on by a couple of furry spectators in a miniature horse and a longhorn.

Crossing onto Ranch Road 12 down 3237 and back to Blue Hole Lane, I thought I had survived the 5K part of the Polar Bear Plunge as we approached Blue Hole.

Then to my horror I saw we had to take the loop around the soccer fields.

By this point I started to feel it in my legs.

But I gutted it out and walked around the loop and all the way to the finish line.

That was part one, and now I had to conquer part two, which was diving into the cold waters of Cypress Creek.

But before I could do that, I talked to Richard Shaver, Parks Director for the city of Wimberley, and Nikolas Farrell, the Blue Hole Operations and Program director.

“The Polar Bear Plunge is a perfect start to the new year,” Farrell said. “We invite everyone out and it’s really big in the community so we try and get everyone together. This is a perfect way to have everyone out and celebrate the new year. It’s completely newcomer friendly. It’s not for anything special, the climate is perfect, all age groups come out to either run, jog, walk, skip, or frolic whatever they want to do so it is all inclusive.”

“This is our fifth year doing the plunge,” Shaver said. “It’s grown every single year and we look forward to expanding it and making it a staple that the community wants to do every single year… I started the program when I saw a lot of people doing the plunge. It is during our offseason when we don’t have a lot of winter events, so this was something we can still do in the cold and get people excited to swim in Blue Hole. Usually we have a fire and hot chocolate to warm up, but today it is a nice day to swim in the creek.”

After my conversation with the two, it was time to conquer my nightmare.

Psyching myself up for nearly ten minutes, I finally did my best cannonball diving formation and jumped into the water.

Though the coldness did shock my body, I was able to pull through and survive the Polar Bear Plunge – at least when it was 75-degrees outside.

Polar Bear Plunge was a fun experience and I encourage everyone who hasn’t taken the plunge to come out next year to participate in.

Maybe this time I’ll be in running shape to capture a medal.