A Note on the Swimathon
About three years ago, we enrolled my stepdaughter in swimming lessons because she absolutely loved swimming and she needed an activity outside of school. She was proficient and pretty fast but always struggled with her endurance. Getting across the pool was quite a chore.
Fast forward three years. She is on the swim team at the local pool and was nominated Swimmer of the Month for the month of February. She has improved leaps and bounds, but her endurance has been suspect at best, so when she declared that she needed sponsors for her team's Swimathon we were pretty sure her accomplishments would be modest. After all, she had only two hours to complete as many laps as she could up to 200 laps. That's a long way. We generously sponsored $.25/lap and felt confident that if she got 70 laps or so she would surpass our expectations.
She was elated that we had pledged so much and asked if she could hit her grandparents up for more pledges. The girl is not stupid, so she played the weak, innocent, little granddaughter for Grandpa Bob and conned $.25/lap from him and then dared Grandpa Jones to match Grandpa Bob. Not to be outgrandpa'ed, he ponied up the exact amount.
Well, the Swimathon was last Friday and the little pipsqueak did all 200 laps in just over 90 minutes. We're on the hook for $50 as are both Grandpa's. She is a machine. Nice job.
Fast forward three years. She is on the swim team at the local pool and was nominated Swimmer of the Month for the month of February. She has improved leaps and bounds, but her endurance has been suspect at best, so when she declared that she needed sponsors for her team's Swimathon we were pretty sure her accomplishments would be modest. After all, she had only two hours to complete as many laps as she could up to 200 laps. That's a long way. We generously sponsored $.25/lap and felt confident that if she got 70 laps or so she would surpass our expectations.
She was elated that we had pledged so much and asked if she could hit her grandparents up for more pledges. The girl is not stupid, so she played the weak, innocent, little granddaughter for Grandpa Bob and conned $.25/lap from him and then dared Grandpa Jones to match Grandpa Bob. Not to be outgrandpa'ed, he ponied up the exact amount.
Well, the Swimathon was last Friday and the little pipsqueak did all 200 laps in just over 90 minutes. We're on the hook for $50 as are both Grandpa's. She is a machine. Nice job.
posted by Cool Dad at Monday, May 02, 2005
4 Comments:
We just gave our three-year-old his first swimming lessons this week. Thanks for the encouragement that it will pay off eventually (or at least cost me $50!)
I say congrats to your stepdaughter. She must be really excited for her hard work paying off. And you must be proud as well.
I have never in my life seen such a determined young person as your step-daughter. I will gladly depart with my $50.00 to encourage her to stay with her love and eventually to try other sports with the same passion. I had the privilege to see her compete this year and if she improves as much next year as she did this year she will be hard to beat. Go Warriors
The stepdaughter just got more good news. She hurt the growth plate in her foot so she can't run in P.E. but she can still swim. Whew!
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