Polar Plunge

The MDRA singlet has come to represent many things. You see one in the Twin Cities or Grandma's Marathon, you can assume the person wearing the singlet likely participated in one of our marathon training programs.

If you see someone wearing one at a USATF team circuit race, you can assume that runner is part of the MDRA racing team, the Bad News Bears of running.

And if you see someone wearing an MDRA singlet jumping into a hole in frozen lake, you can assume that person is certifiably insane.


Hey Drew, can you let us know who is #1? Oh you are? Okay, thanks. Meanwhile. Chris Massoll is catching some serious air.

Over the weekend, on Saturday March 6, these seven brave souls participated in the Polar Plunge at Lake Calhoun to benefit the Special Olympics. Greg Riebe noted the similarities between the MDRA Polar Bear winter running program and the Polar Bear Plunge (same name, both require a level of insanity...) and the rest is history. The event was publicized in the Polar Bear winter running program and the MDRA Spring Marathon (and Half-Marathon) Training Program (do we have a shorter name for that class yet?).


Polar Plungers from Team MDRA (L to R): Kristin Johnson, Greg Riebe, Nathan Campeau, Chris Massoll, Alton Porter, Andrew Plackner, and Andrea Berger

On short notice and word-of-mouth, these runners were able to raise over $4200 to support our fellow athletes in the Special Olympics. Very cool. As someone who witnessed the event I can say that it was also cool to see the sense of community the event generated between runners and of course great to see how much money raised for a good cause.

Plans are already in the works for MDRA's participation in the 2011 Polar Plunge. So be sure to hop into Lake Superior if you do Grandma's this June and really make ice baths part of your training routine. Not only will this help the recovery process but it will be good training for you when you participate in the 2011 Polar Plunge.