Frigid!

I just got out of a scalding hot shower and I'm finally getting feeling back in my toes and fingers!
At 9am the swim course was open to train on. It's only a 500 meter walk from the hotel to the starting line on the beach. Since the weather is cold and wet outside right now, I elected to walk to the beach with my wetsuit already halfway on! It's the perfect pair of warm pants:) All I needed was for one of our coaches to carry my shoes and jacket while I swam the 1500 meters 'horse-shoe-shaped' swim course. The swim exit and transition area is actually about 800 meters down the road from the swim start.
I could not believe how cold the water was! It doesn't help that we have a beach start...you get to slowly walk into the water and feel it creeping up your legs and into the back of your wetsuit. (In races like Alcatraz and normal ITU World Cups, we dive off a high platform and the cold is just one whole-body-shock...short and quick.) When I finally got up my nerve and dove underwater to start swimming, I got the worse 'ice cream headache' from right at the top of my nose between my eyes...SO PAINFUL!
After lots of shrieking and screaming with the other girls, I settled into a comfortable rhythm and felt great in the water. I think the body of water is called "English Bay" so I assumed it would be more salty, but it wasn't too bad. It was a murky brown color but not dirty. Unlike most World Cup races, we are not getting out of the water to start a second loop...and the swim prime line (where I get $500 for crossing first) is actually at the finish of the swim and after a 200 meter run up the beach (better get running fast:)!
Now that I'm finally warm and clean...Jasmine and I are going to spend most of the rest of the day relaxing in our hotel room. There are 50 channels on our TV but none of them manage to show anything interesting so we are probably going to purchase a movie or two and chill in our warm beds!