50 degree water is too cold for someone not aclimated.
I was reading about cold water immersion deaths recently. Most people assume these deaths are primarily caused by hypothermia when that's not actually the case. Many people die almost immediately when entering very cold water due to cardiac arrest. If your body makes it through the initial shock you can actually survive for a long time (well, 30 minutes anyway) in frigid water. Now 50 degrees would be on the high end of "frigid" water--I imagine most deaths are in water very close to freezing--but it's still very cold and obviously potentially life threatening at least for some individuals.
edit: actually this article claims 10 degrees C (50 F) produces the maximum cold water response and reducing the temp to 0 C does not increase the severity of the body's response to cold water: www.webmedcentral.com/.../2426
Based on this I'd say holding an OW race in 50 degree water is playing with fire.
50 degree water is too cold for someone not aclimated.
I was reading about cold water immersion deaths recently. Most people assume these deaths are primarily caused by hypothermia when that's not actually the case. Many people die almost immediately when entering very cold water due to cardiac arrest. If your body makes it through the initial shock you can actually survive for a long time (well, 30 minutes anyway) in frigid water. Now 50 degrees would be on the high end of "frigid" water--I imagine most deaths are in water very close to freezing--but it's still very cold and obviously potentially life threatening at least for some individuals.
edit: actually this article claims 10 degrees C (50 F) produces the maximum cold water response and reducing the temp to 0 C does not increase the severity of the body's response to cold water: www.webmedcentral.com/.../2426
Based on this I'd say holding an OW race in 50 degree water is playing with fire.
