By: Helena Andrews

During the summer months, when the weather’s hot but the floor is not, some staffers blow off steam by flexing their muscles — and we’re not talking about the political kind.

Call them extreme staffers: folks working in and around Capitol Hill who — instead of spending their downtime downing Capitol Amber at Cap Lounge — climb mountains, swim with sharks (sort of) or bike across the country for a cause. Most agree that life on the Hill attracts staffers with a penchant to play as hard as they work.

When Pepper Pennington, spokeswoman for Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.), heard about “The Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim” — a freezing, 1.5-mile course from the former prison island to the San Francisco shore — her first reaction was, “Sign me up.”

Pennington, who in fact does not have a death wish, said the event’s title is a bit misleading. “It’s not like there’s great white sharks coming out after you,” she said, just a few “bottom-feeding sharks and seals.” Nonetheless, the former competitive swimmer wanted to do something “that had an extreme element to it,” and swimming with 800 other people in semi-shark-infested waters fit the bill. She also wanted to do something before she passed the quarter-century mark. She just made it: The swim was in June, and she has since turned 26.

Fellow Feeney staffer Emily Smith, 27, escaped from Alcatraz along with Pennington. Both women, who finished in the top 200 swimmers, said they wanted to do something more unusual than the typical 5K. “I think we both missed that competitive something in our lives,” said Smith, a legislative aide.

Triathlete Laurel Brown got started on the 5K and 10K circuit but was ready to “be a part of something kind of epic.” So the communications director for Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), along with a team of 23 others, participated in the annual Race Across America — a 3,000-mile bike trek from the West Coast to Annapolis, Md., in June.

“It just sounded like a great adventure,” said Brown, who served as a crew member for her team, Xtreme4, which won the mixed division in six days, four hours, 18 minutes.

As part of the crew, Brown was the “brains” of the operation, mapping out the route and making sure Xtreme4’s four bikers were on track. One of those riders was Philip Schmidt, communications director for Rep. Jose E. Serrano (D-N.Y.).

“Phil claims he slept about five or six hours a night,” said Brown. “I slept about three.”

For folks who work high-stress Washington jobs, said Brown, “you’re just as passionate about your job as you are about your hobby.”

But fitting their high-flying hobbies into the Hill’s all-hours work schedule can be an issue for extreme staffers. Pennington, who described herself as “not a morning person,” had to fit in swim time before work prior to the Sharkfest, which was held during the July recess.

“I knew it would be a dead week on the Hill,” said Pennington. It also helped that her boss seems to attract extreme staffers and takes pride in their accomplishments.

“Congressman Feeney was really excited about it because he’s an athlete himself,” said Pennington. “He runs every morning religiously.”

In meetings, Pennington added, the congressman would introduce his press secretary this way: “This is Pepper. She’s actually swimming for Alcatraz!”

Feeney alum Jeff Murray didn’t tell the boss that he had climbed Mount Kilimanjaro during August recess last year until he got back from his trip, although the congressman did notice it had been a while since Murray had shaved.

Like Pennington, Murray also had a ticking-clock scenario when it came to his extreme outlet: He wanted to do something awe-inspiring before he hit 30.

“This is what really compulsive, Type A people do when they have the free time,” said Murray, now 31, who was working as Feeney’s legislative counsel when he decided to climb the 15,000-foot mountain in Tanzania. Murray now works as the director of legislative affairs for The Nickles Group.

Climbing the highest peak on the highest mountain in Africa was more than surreal, said Murray. “Except for people in airplanes, there’s no one in the entire continent of Africa higher than you at that particular moment.”

Murray said it’s no surprise that staffers find the time to participate in unexpected activities during the summer. Plus, he said, people in Washington aren’t just goal setters: “They’ll say they’ll do something, and then they go do it.”

Ryan Triplette, who joined Murray in Africa, agreed: “You do find some staff that want to blow off some steam in August.”

“I didn’t realize there was a correlation between our jobs and engaging in life-threatening sports,” joked Triplette, 30, who “actually got a little pulmonary edema” while she was up there.

Triplette, who works for Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) as chief intellectual property counsel on the Judiciary Committee, was also hesitant to let her boss know about her plans. “We were marking up the patent bill up to a week before” the trip, said Triplette, who didn’t want her extreme moment to distract from the committee’s negotiations on the bill.

Triplette said the senator was likely proud of the fact that she had done “something productive” during her recess, “rather than get manicures the entire time, which is always my preference.” He always likes to hear about the unique things his staffers do, she added.

Triplette is already planning her next extreme getaway, which will hopefully take place during the “dead period after the elections.” She wants to visit all seven continents by the time she turns 32 — and she has three to go.

“I personally want to go to Antarctica and do some iceberg climbing,” said Triplette, before adding that she’s going to “work really hard for that bonus next year.”

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