The 100 K Club
The 100 K club was started on May 3rd 2005. It requires 100 over and back crossings of Lake Cane to become a member. There is was no grand fathering in of previous crossings. There is no time limit, you just fill out the official 100K log which is available on the dock. Only complete crossings count, no credits are given to partial crossings. When you complete 100 over and back crossings you get the really cool Lucky’s Lake Swim 100 K CLUB hat shown below, you are immortalized with a bio about yourself below and a halo of yellow goes around your name on the Lucky’s Lake Swim wall of fame. Bios are listed in order of becoming a club member. We have stopped adding bios because we now have hundreds in the 100K club and doing the bios was becoming overwhelming. You still get the cool hat, halo of yellow and photo on our blog.
Lucky Meisenheimer, M.D. OK it makes sense that the host swimmer would make it into the Lucky’s Lake Swim 100 K club first. He has been doing the lake swims since 1989. Lucky is a former masters national champion and world record holder…..he is best known for his Guinness World Record for the largest Yo-Yo collection and writing the book on yo-yo collecting. Lucky is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild and has been in Ripley’s Believe it or Not for swimming 1/2 mile with his foot in his mouth. In Addition, he’s a pretty darn good Mohs surgeon. www.OrlandoSkinDoc.com www.LuckyRoseFilms.com www.Yo-Yos.net (Alcatraz no wet suit, Key West 12.5 mile, Hurricane Man, Cayman, 100K World Record Relay, 200Kclub, 500Kclub,1000K club, 2000K club, coldest day record)
Nancy Guinn is a regular at the lake cane swimming hole. She grew up in Florida swimming for the Merritt Island High swim team and the ROCO Swim Club. She has had Masters top ten national rankings and has held FL Masters State records. She has been an age group winner of several open water swims. She is also a real estate agent extraordinaire and shoots a mean shotgun. (Alcatraz, Hurricane Man,100K World Record Relay)
Mike Gagnier treks down each day from his home in Winter Park to challenge the lake cane swim. A triathlete for ten years he has completed in multiple races and has completed the Florida Ironman. Although he was a non-swimmer when he started doing triathlon he has now competed in several open water races. A graduate in engineering at the University of Florida he now works for Lockheed-Martin. (Hurricane Man, Cayman,100K World Record Relay)
Mike Marino He drives all the way from Altamonte Springs for our morning swims. A triathlete Mike was one of the first twenty to sign the wall of fame back in 1999. He began swimming in ’99 to rehab an ankle sprain and just never stopped. A Florida State Graduate he is an administrator for the Juvenile Justice Program. He is a veteran of the now legendary Hurricane Dennis Swim of ‘05. Mike swims with a knife, so don’t grab him and make gator sounds. Mike was the first to do 500 crossings, as promised, we rewarded him with a car…see photo at right.(Alcatraz, 100K World Record Relay, 200K club, 500 K club)
Dave Tattersall lives in Hunters Creek and began swimming just 2 ½ years ago when he became a triathlete. He is a member of the Freewheelers Cycling Club and he has completed a Half Ironman. A cabinet installer extraordinaire he is the owner of Rightway Millwork. He is a survivor of the Lake Cane Lighting Storm swim of ’04. “The green light in the background is the underwater light…yes…our early morning swims start for much of the year in the dark….gators have a harder time finding us” (Alcatraz)
Ron “Rolo” Davis finished his 100th crossing, drank his bottle of champagne, took his 100K cap, and disappeared off the face of the earth.
OK after a couple of year hiatus he reappeared and now has earned his 150 crossing yellow cap. Ron is a remarkable treasure hunter and is a champion in THing events. That’s why we never see him on the weekends he is always out THing. Ron’s dog “Digger” was the first dog to achieve Wall of Fame status (200 K club, 500K, 1000K club)
Chris Bolfing Grew up swimming in California for the Cabrillo Clippers. He left the sport of swimming in high school only to return to open water swimming in 1990 to rehab a broken leg. Since that time he has raced in multiple open water races including, Alcatraz, Donner Lake and Gatorman. A pilot “Captain” for Continental airlines he was a former professional hang glider. He finished as high as 4th in the world championships and held the world record for the most continuous spins in hang gliding. (Alcatraz, Cayman,100K World Record Relay)
Mark Myers is our first 100 K member in 2006. As an optics physicist he specializes at Martin Marietta in infrared
search and tracking. He does not have a swimming background. Mark began swimming the lake in 2004 but only going out 200meters and returning. Each time out he would go a bit farther until in a month he was able to do the complete crossing. Since then he has completed the magic 100 doing some doubles on the way. A resident of Orlando since 1989 Mark frequently brings his two cheerleaders with him to the swim. (Alcatraz, 100K World Record Relay, 200K club, 500K club, 1000K club, coldest day record)
Ted Strong is the first 70 year old to earn the Lucky’s Lake Swim 100K club cap. It might seem like quite an accomplishment but it pales when you compare it to his other life milestones. A pioneer in the parachuting industry (D-16) he has done well over 4600 jumps and is the CEO of Strong Enterprises the oldest and largest full line manufacturer of general aviation parachute equipment in the United States . He invented the tandem jumping harness and is the first person to drive a motor vehicle out of an airplane, deploy a parachute, land it, and drive off without ever leaving the drivers seat. He has hiked the complete Appalachian trail, flown a single engine airplane from Orlando to Alaska, ridden a motorcycle across America and enjoyed the trip so much he followed it by riding his bicycle across America. Yep Ted is one cool dude! (Alcatraz, 100K World Record Relay)
Yuko Matsuzaki is the first swimmer to enter the 100 K club with swimming only 10 days. That may sound like a lot but not if you compare it to her longest swim at AQUATICA of 82 crossings (82 kilometers) in 30 hours of non stop swimming. This set the new world record for the longest lake swim. Of course the rest of the story is that Yuko is a professional marathon swimmer competing for Japan and is a member of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. Having done marathon swims all over the world in addition to a nonstop 24 hour swim at the YMCA Aquatic Center makes the 82K swim seem like another day on the job. Yuko also is a freelance writer and has published one book in Japan on open water swimming. (Alcatraz no wet suit, Hurricane Man, Cayman, 100K World Record Relay, 200K club, 500K club)
Chuck Tanner wins the award for living the furthest from the swim and making the 100K club. Residing outside of Melbourne he lives 78 miles from the swim…that’s a 156 miles round trip. Chuck began competitive swimming at age 4 in Texas, swimming through high school including our local Edgewater HS. Being one of the few winter swimmers he has experienced just about everything Aquatica has to offer, dark swims, cold swims, fog swims and storm swims. Chuck has led an eclectic life, owning a landscaping company, being a charter boat Captain, performing EEGs, managing a cycling shop and now working as a consultant for Disney. So with all that life experience you would think he could figure out a way to swim a little closer to home…(100K World Record Relay)
Sean McCormack is a lawyer and we still let him swim anyway….just don’t bump into him during a swim. He does workers compensation law at Alvarez, Sambol, Winthrop & Madson. A long time swimmer in the central Florida area he was a former star and school record holder on the Oviedo High School swimming team and also went on to compete in college for Florida Atlantic University. Today he does triathlons and open water swims where he has had multiple age group wins. (Hurricane Man,100K World Record Relay)
Cleve Cooney is number lucky 13 in the 100K club. He is an experienced open water swimmer and volunteer lifeguard. His big claim to fame is having competed in The American Red Cross Volunteer Lifesaving Corp Meninak 3.5 mile Swim held in Jacksonville, FL a total of twenty two times. He has won the race 8 times. He is a life member of The American Red Cross Lifesaving Corp having done over 2000 hours volunteer work. He recently completed the 12.5 mile Key West Marathon Swim. He lives in Altamonte Springs and works for Florida Film and Tape. (Key West 12.5 mile, 100K World Record Relay)
Darren Price is a former NCAA All-American tennis champion at Rollins College. We have even seen him try to use his racquet as a flotation device to help him get across the lake. Being Australian, he occasionally goes on walkabout and is not seen at the billabong (for us redneck Americans that’s a swimming hole) for a while, but always manages to find his way back. He lives for the workout that swimming provides and has a goal of doing some ultra swimming events in the future.
Jerry Krannebitter made the 100K club on Christmas Eve 2007, which is in some way sad that many of us have nothing better to do with our lives than swim in a cold lake on Christmas eve morning. Jerry is an Orlando triathlete who has completed The Great Floridian Ironman as well as several marathons both running and roller blading as well at the Great Chesapeake Bay swim. He is a “Generator Guy” with Zabatt Power Systems. Jerry is also a former submariner working in the power plant of a nuclear sub “The Navy’s version of Homer Simpson”. If you look close when Jerry swims in the dark you can see a slight phosphorescent glow around his body, which is completely different from the yellow glow that surrounds Yuko when she gets in cold water..(200K club, 500K club)
Geno Augustin became the oldest 100K club member when he finished his 100th crossing on New Year’s Day 2008 at age 76. Geno is so old that when he was a life guard in the 1940s he watched god filling the lakes by squeezing water out of rock. Since none of us were alive then no one can dispute this story. The cool story is Geno fell the night before his final crossing. He swam his 100th crossing with a broken rib he found out later. Geno is the president of Wire Engineering Corp. which produces high tech antenna systems. He has been doing this for the last 50 plus years so it is unlikely he will stop any time soon. Geno lives on Lake Cane and likes to party on it too. That’s why no one swims late at night on the holidays. (100K World Record Relay, 200Kclub, 1000K club, coldest day record)
David Jones joined the 100K club on New Years day in 2008. He had in mind this goal when he started swimming with us in October but he had to do 41 crossings in the last week to make it. The amazing part of the feat is that David lives in Tampa and has to drive 76 miles to do the swim. What’s even more amazing is that he can convince his wife to let him do it. David owns the RV manufacturing Marketing Co. in Tampa. He loves open water swimming and his new goal is to get 50 swimmers from the Tampa Bay area to join him in the Aquatica 1K swim. (Key West 12.5 mile)
Mi Hoshino is the first member of the 100K club to do all 100 crossing in a bikini. Not only did she do all the crossing in a bikini she did them during the winter without the benefit of a wet suit, including our cold record day of 58.8. She is the only member of the 100 K club that complains the water is too hot when the temperature hits 72 degrees. She is an expert at catching small fish in the lower half of her bikini, but no one knows what she does with them. Mi is a independent realtor here in Orlando.Real Estate questions at 407.947.2031. She will go extra miles for you to close your transactions. www.EnjoyRealty.com (200Kclub, 500K club, 1000K club, coldest day record)
Rick Stafford Joins the 100K club after only four months with us. He is a swimmer and triathlete and has completed the Ironman distance as well as the Around Key West swim. Rick can be easily recognized swimming in the lake as he always wears a front mount snorkel. It doesn’t make him swim faster but it does make him look real cool. Rick runs the Elite Fitness Concepts “Run Operation Fitness Boot Camp” www.BootcampFlorida.com He also coaches Team Tri-Hard an all women triathlon training group, which means that Rick is much smarter than the rest of us guys. Please don’t give Rick any grief about being the only male in a group of women, because he has his Masters Degree in counter terrorism and he might be forced to kick your #@$. (Key West 12.5)
Hector Torres with his negative 2% body fat looks like he just came off the set of the movie “300” but it wasn’t always that way. Ten years ago he weighed in at a hundred pounds heavier and had to undergo a big change in lifestyle. Now a triathlete he has done Ironmans and has qualified for Nationals in both the long course and Olympic distances. Currently he is pursuing his PhD in sports science and currently is self employed as a triathlon coach heading up the Central Florida Triathlon Club www.CFLTRICLUB.COM
Joe Moletteire timed his 100K club entry with his first lap in the world record setting 100K relay, multitasking at its best. Joe is a physical education elementary school teacher at Central Avenue Elementary in Kissimmee. He is also an avid triathlete an has completed two full Ironman Distance event events. He has also completed the across Florida Bike ride six times.
George Mann enters the 100K club at age 70. George was one of the original Lake Cane Swimmers back in 1989 and he was an inaugural wall signer in 1999. Finally he has reached nirvana with his 100th crossing (we didn’t count the ones prior to the patches in 2003). George is a former North American Sailing champion and five time National Champion. We assume that he fell out of the boat a lot and that’s why he’s a pretty good swimmer too, having been a former YMCA national masters champion in the mile (If he would have fallen out of the boat closer to shore he might have become a sprinter). He is also a crack shot having won the South Eastern Regional Cowboy action shooting championships. George is a civil engineer (but he can be a very uncivil engineer after his 8th or 9th beer plus he doesn’t shoot as straight) working for the city of Kissimmee for 32 years.
Rick Westman took two years to get the halo of yellow around his name on the wall of fame. Rick can be easily identified by the large red buoy that he keeps in tow when he swims. Many have mistaken the buoy for a rest aid, but in reality it is a lake cane monster repellent device. It is common knowledge that the lake cane monster is repelled by red buoys, and Rick confirms he has never been attacked by the monster, which pretty much proves the point. Rick lives in Hunters Creek and is a triathlete and open water swimmer. He has worked as a sales rep since 1984 with Amerisource Vergen which is a drug wholesaler. He also enjoys duck hunting which is why the lake cane ducks can always be seen swimming away from the dock when he shows up.
Skip Yonchik you would not recognize if you saw him two years ago. Now 80 pounds lighter you would not believe he could have completed a 1/2 ironman or participated in ultracycling completing 257 miles in a 22 hour period. Of course this may be why he is 80 pounds lighter. Even though Skip lost most of his weight long before completing his first lake swim, we here at Lucky’s Lake Swim still like to take full credit for all his weight loss and guarantee to others they will have similar results if they do the lake swim (double your money back guaranteed). Skip is an electrical engineer an works for Beacon electronics.(100K world record relay)
Kathleen Fitzgerald is our first grandmother who is a former spelunker to earn a spot in the 100K Club. A former High School All American Swimmer she is a regular at Lucky’s Lake Swim. She was a member of the 100 K relay world record swim and she is a dark swimmer as well. She swims for Masters of Orlando (MOO) at the downtown YMCA and proudly wears the piebald shirt with the little thingees. Her husband likes cheesecake. She is a teacher here in Orange County that works in the Hospital-Home Bound program.(100K world record relay, Hurricane Man)
Mark Dickie or we should say Dr. Mark Dickie is a PhD professor of economics at the University of Central Florida. His motto is “I have never seen a case of insomnia that I couldn’t cure” When he is not delivering soporific lectures on the scintillating subject of economics, he is pursuing his passion of training for triathlons. He has completed the Ironman distance in the Louisville Ironman. Dr. Dickie made his goal of entering the 100K club before he turned 50 and he did it with a day to spare. Mark also has a device implanted on his left chest wall, which many mistake for a pacemaker. In reality it is a sonic gator away device, which has worked flawlessly for at least the first 100 crossings.
Carlos Figueiredo Immigrated to the United States in 1995 from Brazil. He lived in the mountains of Brazil and there were no heated pools so he appreciates us leaving the heater on in Lake Cane during the months of April through September. He swam competitively in High School and later in college at the University of Catolica. He competed in several open water swims in Brazil before moving to the US. He currently sells time-shares in Orlando.
Tom Fisher Moved to Florida four years ago. He drives an eighteen wheeler tractor trailer locally in Orlando. Being a very macho guy, with about .0001 percent body fat, he wanted to see what it would feel like to have one run over his foot. He decided to start small with a forklift, but it broke his foot so he has postponed having a semi drive over his foot for the time being. Being a runner the broken foot interfered with training so he learned to swim and began doing lake swims. Now thirty triathlons later he is still swimming and waiting for the perfect Semi to put his foot under. We wish you much success in your endeavor and please take plenty of calcium.
Danny Ellis Started swimming at age six so he could jump off the diving board (He wanted to impress the girls even at a young age). He swam for Homewood High School in Alabama. He has completed two running marathons and has the Ironman on his bucket list. He has four kids. Two of which have completed the lake swim as well as his brother. Danny is also a volunteer coach with the Orange County Special Olympics Swim Team. Although he acts like a softie he is really a tough guy. He let a car T-bone him on his bike just to see what it felt like and he didn’t even cry (the bike did, it was trashed).
Keith McUmber The first time he swam in Lake Cane he only made it 100meters swimming with TNT. He hung onto a doughnut swim buoy for safety. He has come along was since then now being a member of the 100K club. He is from the western NY Rochester area and has a wife three kids and three cats. None of the cats plan on doing the lake swim in the future. He works in sales for loss prevention labels in case you need any loss prevention labels (not for use on kids or animals). 200K club
Tom Welch is the second minister to make it into the 100K club confirming that swimming Lucky’s Lake Swim is a religious experience. Tom grew up in Fort Lauderdale swimming for the legendary swim coach Jack Nelson. He attended University of Florida and has a Masters degree in ministry. He plays a mean electric guitar (the rock and roll star thingy didn’t work out) and he has done mission work in Africa (the importation of ivory didn’t work out either) so he still continues his day job as a minister. He does swim with a knife, so don’t grab him and make alligator chomping sounds as a joke.
MaryEllen Indiveri completed her first triathlon on her 50th birthday. Soon after this she discovered Lucky’s Lake Swim, but not before discovering that 50 year olds frequently have to swim to rehab injuries caused by 50 year olds deciding to start doing triathlons. She is the first 100K club member to do all 100 crossings breaststroke. Although that may not seem extreme she also sky dives, bungee jumps, scuba dives, races cars and swims the lake without a knife.
Christine Payne Started training at age 42 for triathlons and in only four years was able to complete her first Ironman distance. She is an account executive for Philadelphia Insurance which is a commercial business insurer. Best known for her favorite saying “This is the best day ever!” she was strangely absent on the coldest days of the lake swim which can only be assumed were not the best days ever. She is known by her friends as “The Devil”.
Mark Larson on his first attempt at Lucky’s Lake Swim “freaked out” and only swam half-way, but he now routinely completes three crossings. Due to his silent, but regular appearance for dark swims he was dubbed “quiet man” by the other 100K club members. Mark is the CFO for Florida Municipal Power Agency. He is a member of the sub sixty club having swam down to 57.3 (but he was wearing a wimp suit).
John Barrett Grew up in California on the beach where he learned to swim and surf, but like most of us he was forced to grow up. Suddenly realizing the dismal prospects that occur with middle-age he began triathlons in 2006. He now has done six full distance Ironmans, but this is not enough because he is still middle-aged. When he is not swimming, running or cycling John does physician background checks for Med Advantage. Since reading this bio, he has done an exhaustive background check on Lucky and has determined that Lucky is not a dermatologist but just a smartly dressed tree druid.
Kimberly A. Hawkins is defined as a free spirit. Hawkins is an avid outdoor chick, who loves sprint triathlons, PBS selected her to compete for their team in an extreme adventure race (running,mountain biking, kayaking, climbing and orienteering). The Rocky Mountains grab this girl’s soul. She is a certified ski instructor and works as an instructor in Keystone Colorado and commutes during the ski season from her Windererme, FL home. When she needs to earn money to support her sports addiction, Hawkins is a freelance graphic designer for the entertainment industry. She is happiest with sunlight on her face, wind in her hair and sand in between her toes.
Gregg Dedic is the first Special Olympian to be inducted into the 100K Club. Gregg swims for the Man O’ War swim team at the YMCA Aquatic Center where he has five team records. Gregg was recently selected to represent Florida in the 2010 National Special Olympics Swimming Championships. Gregg swam in High School for Cypress Creek and he currently works at Sea World.
Mel Nash II at age 15 is our youngest and first teenager to get inducted into the 100K club. Mel swims for Y Swim Orlando and DP High School. Since he is a kid (not a small kid, but a kid just the same) his life story is still blank and ready to be filled. He is still young enough to starting hanging out with a higher class of folks than lake swimmers so there may be hope for him yet. Although Mel swam the majority of his crossings with a kick board and fins we can’t harass him too much as he is still faster that all of us when he takes them off.
Vicky Hay best known for proving that you shouldn’t drink vodka before doing your 4AM leg of the 100K relay. Although her hurling skills may rank the best of the 100K club members she gets negative points for her life long passionate hatred of the Three Stooges. Her entertainment preferences are more high brow., such as watching Sponge Bob while consuming a gallon of ice cream. Vicky has participated in both midnight swims and the 2007,100K relay. She is a Spanish tutor by trade, but watches most of her spongebob episodes in English. She can be reached at Numerounotutoring.com .
Jeff Decker nearly died while trying to complete his one hundredth crossing. As he entered the water for his last swim he took his wedding band off his finger to tie into the cord of his suit so he would not loose it. Unfortunately, he dropped the wedding band in the water. He knew he would face death by wife if he returned home without the ring, and a panicked search revealed nothing. Enter now our superhuman treasure hunter Ron Davis (see 100K club member #6). Armed with an underwater metal detector and a scoop the lost treasure was found (along with several rusty nails, screws and electrical covers, which Lucky is making into a necklace). When asked the value of the ring Jeff”s only answer was “how can you place a value on a life.” (Lucky using all of his ring appraising skills determined the exact value of the ring at $375,000.00 give or take a few hundred thousand.) Jeff went on to complete his swim (ring carefully put away). Jeff has completed four ironmans and is an attorney with Baker Hostetler (which is how he can afford a $375,000.00 wedding ring.
Lorri Moyer SCUBA dives, sky dives, water skis, snow boards, lays tile, hangs drywall and now is in the 100K club. While she is not doing these cool things she works as a phone company provisioner, which she explained in detail, but due to a random narcoleptic episode during the interview our reporter is pretty sure that she said she puts, beef jerky, flour, coffee, dry black powder and musket balls in backpacks for phone company crews (I might be wrong on this.) She is single and looking but would not give her age or weight, but she appears to have good dentition. She grew up swimming for the Franklin YMCA in PA and attended the Boyd School for Travel and Tourism which surprisingly did not have a swim team. She has been doing triathlons for a little over a year.
Seth Elsheimer, provided me with a 157 page Curriculum Vitae and I have distilled it down to this – he holds a PhD and is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Central Florida http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~sethe/ He has run a marathon or ultramarathon in each of the 50 United States (ed. note… who hasn’t??) Canada, Greece and the Czech Republic. http://www.marathonmaniacsdb.com/Maniacx/MyMarathons.asp?Maniacld=1049) He can be seen around town singing with several vocal ensembles including MAKESHIFT http://harmonize.com./makeshift Orlando Harmony http://orlandoharmony.com/ Caroling Company http://www.carolingcompany.com/ and my personal favorite www.werunandsingforfood.com (Okay I made the last one up, but it makes sense).
Dave Helsel is a Orlando native and grew up swimming for the West Orange water warriors YMCA and Dr Phillips High School where is was an All American for four years going a 58.1 in the 100 Breast and
1:57 in the 200 IM. He quit swimming to concentrate on his studies (women) in college but Lucky’s Lake swim has brought him back into the fold. Now he punishes himself with triathlons and work. He is a mechanical Engineer (which means he does nothing mechanical) who is a program manager (which means he manages people not programs) at Lockheed.
Chris Johnson is our stealth 100K club member. Close to two hundred crossings before he admitted that he had long past the 100K barrier. He did the same thing for signing the wall of fame, doing so on his 50 or 60th crossing. He only agreed to do the bio because Lucky threatened to place a MOJO on him and the Lake Cane monster (typically very benign) doesn’t like folks with a MOJO on them. Chris is a triathlete who has an Ironman under his belt. He also was a winner of the FL Coast to Coast Adventure race. In his off time he enjoys cave diving (the lake cane monster lives in a cave in the aquifer just another good reason to not have a MOJO on you). Chris works in IT at the Clerk of Courts (so you know who to talk to if you need some nasty records erased…he wouldn’t do it for Lucky, but then again Lucky did threaten him with a MOJO).
Samantha Zaino remarkably completed her first race ever just three years ago (it was a marathon) her second race ever was a half-ironman and her third race ever was Alcatraz, so it should come as no surprise that it took her only three months to become a member of the 100K club. She moved to Orlando to work at Disney nine years ago, but Disney’s fabulous pay was not to her liking so she became a EMT and now works for Reedy Creek. She is single and still patiently waiting for prince charming (should have maybe kept working at Disney) and volunteers on the weekends with Habitat for Humanity.
Lisa McCartney was our first death scare at L.L.S when she left her car overnight. We assumed the Lake Cane monster had got her, but before we could put her car up for sale on eBay, she showed up not even partly digested. We were glad to see her alive, but also disappointed that we couldn’t have a big party with the proceeds from the car sale. Next time we will post the car quicker with a buy it now tag. Lisa who can be identified by her fetish for pink claims to have completed her first 50 crossings with her eyes closed. She now swims with her eyes open and she has noticed the crossings are much shorter. She has completed two full Ironmans. She works for Camden as a property manager.
Kath Zambito did not start out liking open water swimming. Matter-of-fact she quite frequently tosses her cookies when she swims open water. Although we do appreciate her attempts at feeding the lake cane monster we would prefer her to do it from the back of the pack. She claims that after making the 100K club she is now free of this affliction (other swimmers just be aware that may not be clumps of algae your swimming through). Kath has completed two Ironmans, but she did not comment on the hurl status during the races. She is a pediatric nurse at Florida Hospital (and I thought all pediatric nurses had stomachs of iron). She is a wife and a mom and wants to learn how to kite surf (oh come on if swimming in a lake makes you heave what do you think kite surfing’s gonna do}
Lauri Herbst came to Florida wanting to mountain climb and try out spelunking (nice idea wrong state) so it is no wonder that she had plenty of free time to train for triathlons and is the proud finisher of two Ironmans. Lauri is not content just training she actually lives Tri as she works as a publishing production manager for
Tri-foods. About the only thing in her life that is not tri is her dog Lilly. Lauri is single and looking (both Tri guys and Non-Tri guys are welcome to apply)
Don Paradis did his first Tri in may this year and started with the lake swims in June. He is a nurse anesthetist and married with two kids and has lived in Orlando since 1995. For fun he does something on the foreign exchange as a currency trader so he is probably loaded and just keeps the day job as an anesthetist to fool the IRS. When he’s not training for triathlons he is likely hanging out with George Soros.
Bruce Butler is the one swimming without the wet suit. He is the only swimmer to make January 2011 with out a wet suit. He is in the “I Survived 55 club” (the only way you get in the club is to swim 55 degrees without a wet suit). He started swimming in order to do triathlons and he had no formal swim training although he is a scuba instructor and cave diver. He has lived in Orlando for 28 years. He received his PhD at UCF and has taught there as well (which you would think would make him smart enough to swim with a wet suit when the water gets cold). Currently he is an engineer at Disney who has been banned from discussing calculus problems in the hot tub as it causes Lucky’s neurons to fuse forcing him into a torporous state. Bruce is not the only member of the family to do the lake swim as is son has been a regular swimmer as well.
Steve Klein, a local landscape contractor, grew up in Miami and although he had four swimming siblings he ended up a tennis player. At one point is was ranked in the top 10 in Florida for 18 and under’s (Steve, I must point out that was a reeeeeealy looooong time ago, and I believe there were only about 5 tennis courts in the entire state at that time). Steve, anyway, has seen the light and has now become an open water swimmer even though he still occasionally takes a whack at the little green ball. And what about his four swimming siblings? Well they are what you call pool swimmers (A.K.A. wimps) and have not joined Steve the lake yet.
Michelle Charles, self described fitness swimmer, is the first person living out of state to be inducted into the 100K club. No, she doesn’t live just al little out of state she lives all the way over in Phoenix Arizona. (Now we keep pretty tight lipped about the fact there are other open water swimming opportunities a bit closer to Phoenix than us, but don’t tell her, we want her to keep coming). Not only is she a member of of the 100K club, but she is in the “I survived 55 club” and swam her 100th swim on new year’s day. When she is not traveling back and forth from Phoenix she works as a school nurse at Camelback High School in Phoenix.
Gary Ruchlin couldn’t swim open water. He came out to swim the lake three times before he could make it all the way, and now he finds that swimming is the best part of his training. He enjoys doing adventure races, triathlons and the occasional marathon. Two of his boys have done the swim and he has done both of the midnight swims. He has been the technical director for The Golf Channel for the last thirteen years, but his handicap is still worse that his lake swim time.
Lisa Valentine learned to swim in January of 2009. She did her first lake swim in September of 2009, and now just a bit over a year later she is in the 100K club (This may not sound like a big deal, but she drives all the way from Melbourne, FL so she can do the swims). She graduated from University of Pennsylvania from the Wharton School of Finance. Currently she spends eight months of the year traveling and four months playing outside in Florida. (Now I travel 12 months of the year from my office to home, but apparently this is not the type of travel she does) She has been to 72 countries and and 48 states (You got to wonder how pathetic the two states are that haven’t rated high enough for her to visit) she has biked the him al ay as, scuba dived in the red sea off Egypt, hiked New Zealand for 10 weeks, and seen the northern lights in the arctic circle. She studied Japanese in Japan, Spanish in Spain and German in Germany (Not to brag, but I studied red-neck in Kentucky and I speak it pretty dang well too). Her next adventure is that she has signed up for a full Iron man (I forgot to ask which one, but is probably the Antarctica Iron man where she will also study to speak penguin).
Shawn Pratt got in his 100K before moving to New Hampshire for a job in construction management. He became interested in open water swimming when he began doing adventure races in 2008. Not that he needed more adventure in his life he was a member of his high school wrestling team and then he joined the Marine Corps at age 18 serving in Afghanistan as a rifleman in 2001 and 2002 (for this we all salute you). Shawn can be easily recognized by his guardian angle tattoo which seems to be working quite nicely.
Terri Valley started swimming only three years ago about the same time she began doing Lucky’s Lake Swim. Now a mere three years later she is a member of the illustrious 100K club. Not bad for someone whose only high school interests were smoking, drinking and chasing boys (her words not mine). Now she has stopped smoking, drinks only on occasion (limited to days ending in the letter y) and I still need clarification on whether she is still chasing boys (she has apparently caught some over the years so this activity may have lost some of its luster). She currently works for UCF reviewing research grant contracts, which she states is scintillating work and keeps her so busy that she has no time to join a street gang. In her spare time she raises two kids and sells jewelry on the side (which is apparently legal in the state of Florida the way she does it, but when I try to sell jewelry the owners always contact the authorities).
Jay Murphy grew up in Houston Texas (we won’t hold that against you) and swam age group and high school at Cypress Creek (obviously name stolen from our Cypress Creek H.S. we will hold that against you). He went on to swim at the University of Missouri Rolla (where they have one of the most excellent athletic director’s in the world) where he was a NCAA division II All American in swimming (kudos for that). Now he works at Lockheed Martin here in Orlando and pushes Lucky to the point of having heart arrhythmias every morning.
Digger-the-dog is the first canine member of the 100K club (and technically our youngest swimmer at age 4). He has a steady job in home security and personal protection. Digger is single, but sadly for all you bitches in heat (we are talking dog here so save the P.C. hate mail) he is neutered. Like all dogs that swim he enjoys playing ball, motorcycle riding with his human, football, soccer, table tennis, underwater hockey and spelunking (actually he hasn’t done the last two, but it’s on his bucket list.
Digger likes metal detecting with his human. He loves to drop his ball in the hole that his human is digging (hence the name digger, actually we should call Ron “Digger” and Digger “ball dropper”).
Digger’s routine is pretty simple, wake human, get human dressed, make sure human goes to lake swim, lead human in lake swim and beat several others along the way, sit in hot tub and try to bite the mole that pops up from the bottom that sprays water, take shower, get back in the hot tub for one last chance to kill that #&$* mole, go home when human quits talking to Lucky, take nap and repeat.
His human Ron Davis is best known for his amazing ability to complete the two hundredth crossing multiple times. His godfather is Gene Augustin (best known for his buoy handling and pancake flipping skills . . . he has a big future as a fry cook, but Gene won’t listen.
Volker waited to sign the wall for the first time on the same day as he got in the 100K club. I guess that’s to be expected from a guy named Volker. I don’t know whether it a first name, last name, middle name, or it may be all three, but there is no question that he looks like a Volker. If you saw him walking down the street and didn’t know his name you would say to yourself that guy looks like a Volker. Volker started doing triathlons in 2007, but was forced to stop after a man versus SUV encounter. (Volker got messed up, but you should’ve seen the SUV – yes Volker is tough) Volker went through college at FDU on a wrestling scholarship (he looks like he could do it again right now) and he is in the “I survived 55 cold water club here at Lucky’s Lake Swim” (which may be more a sign of mental instability than that of toughness). Volker works for Linpharma (like Volker just one name) where he is the general manager for the Nutraceutical Company.
Jim Hasley is a local who grew up swimming for Oakridge H.S. (where he was the MVP) and Dr. Phillips H.S. He then went to UCF where he was on the cheerleading squad and played rugby. (Okay, I’m not sure I’m following the swimming to cheerleading/rugby transition, but it’s even more difficult to wrap my mind around the whole cheerleading – rugby combination). Anyway, he states his big claim to fame was that he could out drink all the other cheerleaders. (Now I don’t know much about cheerleading bragging rights, but being able to out drink a 4’11’ 80lb cheerleader doesn’t seem like you set the bar all that high. Plus, I didn’t hear any comment about being able to out drink the rugby team.) Happily, those wild days are just a far distant memory as he is now an upstanding married man with two kids. He works as a financial planner (which makes sense because he puts on a tie every morning after the lake swim and since he can’t be going to a funeral every morning the only remaining occupation in the country that still wears a tie every day is a financial planner.) Jim likes to hunt and will sometimes go to wild exotic places to make meat (Georgia).
Shauna Dillon Anstey swam for the first time in lake cane at age 2 in 1972. Now just 27 years later (okay you do the math yourself, but if she says she’ feels 29 I’m going to go along with that) she is now in the 100K club. Originally swimming for Space City Aquatics in Houston she is now a triathlete and has completed two Ironmans. This year she has qualified to go to the USAT Age Group Nationals. Not bad for a working mom with two kids. She works as an event planner at Valencia, which sounds pretty exciting until she describes it as meetings and “all kinds of stuff”. (Personally I think she is being modest, she undoubtedly schedules all the big rock concerts that Valencia hosts. Probably gets to hang out with Mick Jagger and all those types.)
Barb Abney started swimming Lucky’s Lake swim in 2009 after going through Rick Stafford’s (100K club member) boot camp. She is a former swimmer at Oviedo H.S and the East Brook swim club in Winter Park. A former president of the Orlando Runners Club she is now back from the dark side. She swam all of her crossings breaststroke and has done one 5K crossing doing nothing but breaststroke. She “works” at UCF as a communications expert (as opposed to all the non-experts in communications that UCF hires) on research projects.
Todd Woods is a triathlete that learned the hard way that you really do have to swim to complete a triathlon. In his first race he ended up doing backstroke most of the way as the air supply with his face in the water was not adequate. His first lake swim involved a multitude of strokes again all designed to maximize oxygen. But, that was all in the past. He has now completed a ½ ironman and a full ironman is on his bucket list. He is currently not working in construction management, which is good as this gives him more time to train. He is not married but taken
Mary Jo Garvin claim to fame was that in 1972 she was listed in the newspaper as having swam a 40 yard freestyle in 4 seconds (a typo) , but it meant she had to keep on swimming as everyone thought she was so fast. On her first attempt at Lucky’s Lake Swim she did not make it but friends tricked her into swimming a second lap with them and she finished. Unfortunately for her “you gave me that damn tracking sheet and I’m type A” so she had no choice to keep swimming here. She works for TSA at the airport so hide your knifes well (which is hard to do wearing speedos).
Mark Weeks (aka Flash . . . I am assuming this has something to do with speed. At least I hope so.) Grew up swimming and playing water polo here in Orlando and Winter Garden. He swam for West Orange Warriors and Team Orlando. In college he played water polo for Findlay and Ohio State. He’s done an Ironman (but it was in France so I guess it counts.) He works in cyber security (which keeps rogue cyborgs in check, I could be wrong on that) He is married and has a baby Zack, which he shamelessly uses as an excuse to miss early morning lake swims.
Maureen “Mo” Powers started doing triathlons four years ago otherwise would not have begun open water swimming. Her background was in running where she ran the mile (presumably more than once) and did cross country for the Munster Indiana (no relation to the Munsters TV show, which was always confusing to me) Mustangs. She has lived in Florida now for 25 years and works at Disney as a Restaurant Manger at Seasons. She is married with two dogs.
Dianne O’ Neal grew up in Saudi Arabia and developed her love of lake swimming from all of the numerous opportunities that presented there (I have never been to Saudi Arabia so this is just my best guess). She was sent to boarding school during high school in Connecticut, but found her internal thermostat had been set in Saudi Arabia, so 25 years ago she moved to Florida. She was a couch potato (Her words not mine. I prefer the more politically correct Sofa Solanum tuberosum) until 3 years ago when she started doing triathlons. Currently she works for Disney as a finance manager and she is married with three dogs.