Lucky’s Lake Swim

What is it? Well let me tell you. Of course you get the back story too. Well a few weeks ago I posted on the USMS forum looking for some Daytona area open water swims. Several posts game back saying bad idea to swim the beaches that spring weather and cranky lifeguards will spoil the fun. I was like Oh no you didn’t! Then I get a post to check out http://www.luckyslakeswim.com/ . Turns out this eccentric dermatologist in Orlando lives in a gorgeous house along a lake. He swims the lake every morning at 0630 and loves company. I finally got to hop in with him and some others Friday morning before I left. It went a little like this…
The family was loaded into the WIFE'S minivan and we were headed back to Ohio but, there was something I needed to do first. I had been violently ill for five days of my 6 day vacation and I’ll be damned if I was leaving Orlando without a workout. It was around 0620 as I pulled up to the gated property of Lucky Meisenheimer. I was a little reluctant to pull up to a strangers house and make myself at home. About a week ago I was able to check out Lucky’s website and watch a video about this morning swim. So I pulled in and parked…in his lawn because the driveway was full of other swimmers. I left the family to sleep in the car and I walked down to the dock, it was easy to find my way since it’s the only lit piece of acreage around the lake. Spring mornings in Orlando are rather cool, air temp was 56. I see that this worried some people as they were trying to squeeze into full wetsuits. They must be triathletes because no real swimmer is donning a chunk of neoprene in Florida. I stood there on the dock finishing my coffee trying to spot our destination. I hear this voice, louder than all the rest and this 6’ 3” man wearing only an old skool style speedo comes walking down. This had to be Lucky, and since everyone was saying “Good Morning Lucky” I used my finely tuned skills of deduction to solve that equation. Now here’s something, umm, interesting. I figured since he was there it was time to swim, so I turn my back to get undressed and I hear something that sounded like pebbles hit the water the a bit of splashing. So I assume this is the point where you feed the predators before we jump in. What if they didn’t eat enough? What if they are still hungry when I get in? Hmmm…or should I say mmmm. Well at this point I walked around the dock into the water where Lucky has two 4’ alligator statues in the water. I knew those were there by watching that video. There were these dark 18” circles all around, I assumed they were rocks. So now it’s time for the big start, Lucky’s dog stands at the end of the dock and barks a few times which means get your ass moving in caninese. I let others move out ahead of since all I know is that I’m swimming towards someone’s kitchen light , I’ll follow for now. Remember it’s still dark and as I dive into the 68 degree water it’s complete darkness. I can’t even see the other swimmers splashing around. Needless to say I’m a little nervous but, it was awesome at the same time. I managed to find my way across, it was only 500 meters to the other side, and by the time I was halfway back I see better as the sun began to rise. After the first lap I had caught up to Lucky and another swimmer. Time to hammer a bit. After a week of no swimming this is what I needed. The next lap was a pace swim where the 3 of us were challenging one another a bit. After the second lap one guy got out and Lucky made the suggestion to turn another. Why the hell not I though, what’s 2 miles open water among new friends? On the way out we paced nicely and stopped at the other side to BS for a minute. Lucky turned and began his “decent”. I could tell right away the pace had picked up. These are my favorite times. When your body wakes up and screams lets go. Like a red lined tach at a light my excitement was crazy loud. I opened up the stoke and began a small kick. I started sighting every 10 strokes and kept an eye on the others as we hammered towards the shore. I began to feel my shoulders fatiguing and my lats were on fire but in the chilly water I had this hidden energy. I've noticed that my open water splits average around 1:10-1:15 per 100 which is good considering my pool splits are pretty close. When we arrived at the shore Natalie and the kids were there taking some pics. She informs me of the wildlife swimming around. Now I know what those dark shapes were. Turtles. Pretty benign in my book. She also indicated a snake in the area. But Hey, that's the point of the swim.

At the end of one passing you have earned the right to sign the wall behind the house. You bet I was looking forward to it. We went up to the house and BS'd a little as Lucky gave me a patch and a bumper sticker with the logo on it. I proceeded to sign the wall and then Lucky took my kids inside to see his collection...of YoYo's, which happens to be the worlds largest (according to Guinness). My kids received a complimentary copy of his book on Yo'Yo's as well. A book that I have enjoyed just as much as the kids. So as you can see, this was fun little swim. The best part was interacting with Lucky. I found it most enjoyable to swim with a little competition and I think he felt the same since 2 people showed up that day and swam a little harder than usual.

After it's all said an done I am feeling more confident that I'm prepared to swim the Potomac. I was feeling a little anxiety for awhile but, i thinks it alls going to be just fine.

Lastly, just an FYI. Lucky is also in the Guiness book for swimming 800 meters...with his foot in his mouth.