JUST A QUICK NOTE TO SAY WHAT A GREAT TIME WE ALL HAD, A RECORD CROWD OF NEARLY 300 RUNNERS, PLUS A COUPLE DOZEN KAYAKER AND THRONGS OF CHEERING SPECTATORS, INCLUDING THE GANG THAT HELD UP THE SIGN WELCOMING US TO NOANK - A NICE TOUCH.

A WONDERFUL REUNION WITH OLD AND NEW FRIENDS. ALREADY LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT YEAR. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

You'd think that in more than four decades of plunging into Fishers Island Sound after a brisk run on New Year's Day, just once – once! – snow would be flying, the temperature would plummet to single digits, the wind would howl savagely, or better yet, all three would combine to make the event, one of southeastern Connecticut's zaniest and most transcendent traditions, more of a challenge.

But no, once again the crazy group that I first joined on Jan. 1, 1972, will enjoy balmy conditions when the runners hit the water, unless every single forecast is wrong.

Oh well, it will still be great fun, and you're all invited. The event is free, open to everybody, has no official name or organizers, and no real purpose other than to celebrate the start of the new year with a few hundred of your closest friends in madcap fashion.

This year's edition will be slightly different.

First of all, on a sad note, it will be the first New Year without Boston Marathon champ Johnny Kelley, one of the run-swim stalwarts and whose house on Pequot Avenue in Mystic has long served as the starting point. Johnny died in August at age 80.

We'll still depart from Pequot Avenue, but instead of diving into the water at Groton Long Point's Main Beach we'll be making the leap at Esker Point Beach on Groton Long Point Road in Noank, because the bridge near Main Beach is blocked by construction.

Many thanks to Groton Town Manager Mark Oefinger and Groton Town Police Chief Mike Crowley for their efforts to move the swim this year to Esker Point, where there's plenty of parking. That reminds me, I'd better alert my kayaking buddies to paddle to Esker instead of GLP. A flotilla of a couple dozen boats usually joins the festivities, along with throngs of spectators.

Actually, jumping in at Esker – luckily, it will be high tide when we hit the water about 1 p.m. on Sunday – recreates the very first run-swim on Jan. 1, 1969.

On that date three friends – Amby Burfoot, then of Groton Long Point, who a year earlier had won the Boston Marathon, Lee Burbank of Mystic and Marty Valentine of Noank – decided to take an impromptu dip on New Year's Day. They drove to Esker Point in Noank, sprinted across the beach, plunged into the water and then piled back into their car.

The following year the trio reprised the swim , but in 1971 a handful of other friends tagged along and agreed to start with a five-mile run from Johnny Kelley's house. It was only four miles to Esker, so they moved the finish line an extra mile to Groton Long Point.

So we'll only be running four miles this year – eight, for those of us who run back.

There's been talk of moving the start to a new location next year. A bunch of Johnny's friends, myself included, have been raising money to commission a statue in his memory, and we're considering a site on River Road in Mystic, a Mecca for runners and one of Johnny's favorite training routes.

Once the statue goes up it would be a logical starting point for the run-swim.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Sunday, as always, will be a happy reunion with friends. Johnny would hate to think people weren't having a great time.

I'll especially enjoy seeing Bill Billing of Mystic and Kim Murphy of Stonington. Bill and I are tied for the longest consecutive string of New Year swims, while Kim is one year behind us.

We always joke about plotting to sabotage each other in order to enjoy sole possession of one of the most idiotic records imaginable, but the truth is we all hope to be running and swimming together on New Year's Day for decades to come.