Holiday Odyssey...at long last...the recap!!

The pictures are in no particular order at this point due entirely to the fact that this website does not have a terribly friendly user interface when it comes to pics....still...I hope you enjoy them.


This year I decided to try something new with the Orange Group swimmers over the holiday season. I arranged for them to experience an "Odyssey": a gruelling, challenging, epic battle of man vs. self. The idea was to see exactly how much they could handle, and to prove to THEM exactly how tough they really are.




Initially I had thought that I wouldn't have many "takers"...I tried to be very dour in my warnings about the difficulties they would face and I told them all that wimps would be sent home...I carried on and on.

Fifteen kids signed up.
We have some hardy kids on our team.



Each kid had to sign a waiver that listed explicitly all the things they couldn't do (whine, complain, stop, bring cell phones, bring ipods, bring gameboys....NONE of those things were allowed). They all understood that breaking any of the rules would result in their immediate expulsion from the event.

They all signed it.



Here we go! The Odyssey began on a Saturday morning, December 21st...which happens to be the winter solstice. They showed up at 6:45am, piled all their gear (including tents, sleeping bags, cots etc) into the baby pool area at Marcus Pool...and giggled with each other a bit about the temperature as they waited for "everything" to start.





Whistle blow..."FIVE MINUTES....BE READY!!"






WORKOUT #1 : 7a.m. 3000 yards
The first workout went smoothly, everyone had lots of energy and they all did a fine job. Each lane had a paper workout to go from for every workout, which minimized my involvement and made them responsible for their own yards. My primary role was motivator and orange provider...they ate a LOT of oranges over the course of 24 hours.



As far as I could tell...that first morning everyone was honest about how far they swam. At approximately 8am, Rick Frabasilio showed up with his video camera to record the swimmers. We organized ourselves alphabetically and then spent the next hour or so recording a 50 of each stroke, including the turn, and then a forward start and a back start. The weather was chilly...but spirits were still high.




Next on the agenda...the MINI MEET @ 9am
Yes, I made them swim a 3000 yard practice before a meet. =)
They all did a great job at the meet...some even went best times!

Before the meet, I gave them all their special "Holiday Odyssey T-Shirt", so they could stand out a bit and feel proud of what they were endeavoring to do.

After the meet they helped clean up, and then Denise Dahl and Teresa Casares served us all soup and sandwiches for lunch! It was a great meal...and afterwards everyone had about an hour to set up camp before the next workout. There was lots of hollering and laughing...and the tents eventually looked like tents.



WORKOUT #2: 1:30p.m. 7800 yards

Still very spirited, this was a good workout...and a long one, our longest in fact. It was after THIS workout that signs of "wear" began to appear...namely in the way of chaffed skin. Fortunately I had a little tub of vaseline on hand to ease the discomfort. The kids showered and dressed...had a snack and settled down for another rest.


After THIS workout, the Frabasilio Family showed up with a beautiful Spaghetti dinner, and Mr. Curtis & Ryan came bearing caesar salad and garlic bread! It was a great feast, and the kids (aside from comments about the food line feeling like they were in "jail") ate well and enjoyed themselves. Then they relaxed for a bit and just talked.

WORKOUT #3 5p.m. 4900 yards
This workout was fairly quiet...I noticed a little more "creative counting" during THIS session. However, the kids were all really great about keeping each other laughing and motivated. Still no whining...however, more chaffing. In fact, it was at this point that the chaffing became a major issue. So much so that we had to put in an emergency call to Chace's Grandma to bring us more vaseline!!



After the workout they showered and at about 9:30pm we turned on a movie (Brian Regan...stand-up comic...family friendly....VERY funny). After the movie & popcorn it was time for bed. Many of them didn't make it through the movie...but we shuffled them all off to bed. This was at approximately 11pm.







11:55 p.m. TIME TO WAKE UP!!!! MIDNIGHT PRACTICE!!!

Some kids were easier to wake than others...there were a couple that I thought we'd have to drag out of their sleeping bags...but they all eventually made it into the changing rooms.

WORKOUT #4: 12a.m. 2650 yards

This workout was completely silent. I don't think I heard anyone say much of anything. They swam by the underwater pool lights only, all other lights in the pool complex were turned off, which may have contributed to the solemn atmoshere. We made LIBERAL use of vaseline during this workout...lots of kids had very bad chaffing from wind exposure and swim suit rub...it was pretty bad.


The weather had been a factor throughout the experience, it was COLD that weekend...(actually...I think I've blocked most of the memories out...so I hope you can appreciate the detailst that I DO remember!!). At any rate, during midnight practice, it was VERY VERY COLD.

The practice went fairly quickly (as I'm sure you can imagine), and soon they were climbing out and running to the showers again.

Back to bed...and this time I was so tired I started to hallucinate. I could have SWORN I heard the girls in the tent next to me get out of their tent and go running off along the pool deck. I battled with myself about stopping them or letting them have some fun, the "fun" idea won and I fell immediately asleep.

5:20 a.m. TIME TO WAKE UP!!

WORKOUT 5: 5:30a.m. 2800 yards

This workout was tough. They were tired, cranky, physically and emotionally exhausted...most of them were wondering why the heck they had agreed to this torture. It was GREAT!! =) The chaffing was bad...it would be several days for many of them to fully heal from that aspect of this adventure.

After this workout...the Roberts Family served us a fantastic meal of pancakes, syrup and fruit! The kids were very quiet while they ate...you could tell they just wanted to go home. (Me too!).





Leigh Kaba had arranged "goodie bags" for all the kids...a Christmas / Congratulations for Surviving gift! They had a LITTLE bit of fun with the silly string!! HAHA!!





HOWEVER....we STILL had to break camp! Thank you to all who stayed to the bitter end to help clean up.

It took ME two days to recover from this Odyssey....and a month of emotional recovery time before I could get it all written down! =)

THANK YOU's:

Thank you so much to all the parents who helped to provide us with food. You did a fabulous job (Chace's grandma came through with an emergency run for oranges...she was an ANGEL!!)

Thank you to Rick for your video work. =) The movies were a big hit!


Thank you to Leigh Kaba for providing us with a giant propane heater to help us stay warm overnight! Thank you also for the wonderful gift bags you put together!


Thank you to Audra Flores for staying with me all night and assuring me that I WAS in fact hallucinating when I thought I heard the girls get out of the tent. Wow eh? =)

Thank you to Mr. (Officer) Casares who came by during midnight practice while he was on duty to see if everything was all right.

And finally, thank you to the swimmers. You are a tremendously cool group of kids, and it was a great honor to go through such an epic adventure with all of you. You all did a FANTASTIC job and you deserve to be very proud of yourselves.

You truly do have MENTAL TOUGHNESS!!