… Saturday’s swim was a bit unusual. To start with, we had a couple of guests… first was Frank Zamuner, you might recognize the last name, as his son, Rob Zamuner, played for the NY Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Ottawa Senators and Boston Bruins, but Frank has his own thing… he campaigns to raise funds for Mental Health… and coincidentally the thing he finds as one of the best things to help treat for the depression he went through after his triple bypass surgery is… swimming.
“In 2005 I had a triple bypass operation. When I came home after surgery to recover, I found it very hard not to do anything as I was a very active person before the surgery. I had a difficult time sleeping and eventually I got depressed,” said Frank Zamuner. “While looking for help I found out how great a need there is for psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and related medical equipment. Depression does not discriminate; it affects people from all walks of life, young and old, rich and poor. I have been fortunate to receive excellent care from OTMH and found out that it helps to be active when you suffer from depression. Simply put, I feel better after swimming.”
So Frank has decided to join LOST and came out for his first swim on the Saturday… he also qualifies as the oldest LOSTie now too… at 76 years young! Be sure to stop by his dunk tank at Oakville’s Midnight Madness… and tell him you are a LOSTie out to support him! You can find out more about Frank and his fund-raising at http://ohf.akaraisin.com/Common/Event/Home.aspx?seid=3967&mid=8
Then we had the global-galivanting swimmer extrodinaire… “The Big River Man”… Martin Strel! I won’t go over all of Martin’s accomplishments, but suffice it to say that he is one of the greatest marathon and adventure swimmers of all time! It’s always fun to see Martin and hear some of his stories about swimming the entire length of the Amazon, Mississipi, Danube or Yangtze Rivers… not the normal conversations heard at Brett’s “Bean There” coffee shop… except on Saturday mornings! http://openwaterpedia.com/index.php?title=Martin_Strel
Oh, and for the swimming… well it was unusual too! Michele, Madhu and I got in an hour early for a bit longer swim in our training for our Lake O Crossings… coming up oh so very quickly (34 days for me!… yikes!). Then we got back to the beach to welcome a near record crowd of 52 swimmers (57 for the last 2 weeks is the current LOST World Record)… but the big question on everyone’s mind was the water temp?! Last week it was a very comfortable 65F… but Michele, Madhu and myself were in on Wednesday night too… and it rolled over… it was 47F!!!… it was a short swim. Hats off to Madhu and Michele though, they stood waist deep to help with cold water training… for 60 minutes! Funny thing was though, the warmer water had returned… it was 65F again!?! With all the water getting stirred up so much recently it was very strange though, as there were all kinds of warm and cold pockets… and the surface was even much warmer than down 2 feet where you pulled!
So we figured we were out of the woods there… warm-ish water… phew. We decided to go 25 minutes out and 25 minutes back. But just as we started out, some very ominous clouds appeared to be headed our way over the trees… and then it opened up! The rain came pouring down in sheets… which is kind of fun, swimming in the rain… but then the lightning and the thunder started! Not so much fun! We got everyone to shore, and Alex even picked up a few in the zodiac that were speed enough to be quite a ways out there. Some got out and walked back and those close enough just swam back… nice to see the eveacuation plans work without any problems. We all went for a coffee at “Bean There” looking like a bunch of drown rats… but a good time was had by all!
See you on Saturday!
Cheers,
Rob