Streamlined News, Dec. 29, 2011

PHOENIX, Arizona, December 29. YESTERDAY an announcement was released about an open water competition being held in the mountains of the Qinghai province. The International Winter Yellow River Crossing Challenge will be held January 6 and 7 in the nearly frozen waters of the Yellow River, which organizers estimate will be about 4 degrees Celsius, or 39 degrees Fahrenheit. The Yellow River flows through province at 2,200 meters, or nearly 7,200 feet, making this one of the highest –altitude competitions in the world, though given the temperature, I doubt anyone will be doing a 10K.

Speaking of cold water swims, hundreds of people in England observed Boxing Day on Monday with some cold-water plunges to raise money for charities. In England on the Isle of Wight, several people dressed up in interesting attire before running into the chilly sea, though as you can see, very few braved the water for more than a minute.

And in West Bay in Dorset, the annual West Bay Wallow Swim on Monday featured even more exciting costumes and a plunge into the English Channel for the seventh year. The goal of this swim is to make it to a buoy about 50 meters from the starting point, and as you can see, most of the people managed to get that far.
Take a look at this video from a swim in Llandudno in Wales. Two people dressed up in a camel costume for the occasion, and I'm sure wearing those thick pants as legs took some of the shock out of the cold water. As a reference for those of us who don't live in Commonwealth countries, Boxing Day is a secular holiday that falls on December 26 and is celebrated mostly in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

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