Back when I was just an 18-year-old high school senior. I was an Olympic caliber swimmer. After an All-American senior swim season, I decided to compete in state, regional, and national competitions. To do this I had to seek sponsors for expenses such as training and lodging at each competition.
Luckily my dad knew this guy Ralph who owned a construction, excavation, and paving company. I went to Ralph and pleaded my case. Ralph was a very imposing character at his 6 feet and 4 inches. He was mammoth in size as well. He had to weigh at least 285 and I mean 285 in muscle. His chest huge so broad and defined above a little beer gut, His legs were sculpted, finely rippled from the years of manual labor.
Ralph was very receptive and made a strong promise to help out as much as possible. He said it wasn't totally in his control however, as he had hired a man to run the business end of his operations. So Ralph took me to meet Joesph. Joesph was a little bowling ball of a man. He was probably around 5'8'' weighing about 250. He was one big gut, balding and graying probably 10 years ahead of Ralph's 42 years.
Joesph was an uptight penny pincher of a man. "How much will this set us back?" he asked. Upon replying around $15,000 he gasped. He gave Ralph a death stare and turned my way. "Absolutely not," he said. Ralph pulled him away and they went at it. After a brief yet animated discussion Joesph reluctantly cut me a check. "You better be worth it kid," he remarked.
I went straight into training. To have more time to focus on my development as a swimmer I dumped my girlfriend at the time Joyce. I spent every waking minute trying to better myself as a swimmer. I spent hours in the pool, in the weight room, running, and doing yoga. The training was paying dividends. My doughy 170 turned into a solid 185 pounds of fine tuned muscle. I lost all my baby fat off my newly shaved aerodynamic body and in the process trimmed almost 5/10 of a second off my times.
A week to competition, a meet in Atlanta, I'm primed a perfect diet and intense training regiment have me at my peak. I was bursting with energy because of my trainer's no getting off strategy, the same way boxers won't have sex before matches. I invite my sponsors to the meet figuring there's no way they'll show for a meet so far away, but figure it was polite just the same. To save cash I would be traveling out to Atlanta by myself.
I get to Atlanta a day before the meet. Did a light work out and got a massage and called it an early night. At the meet I was unstoppable winning every heat I had entered. After the medal ceremony my two sponsors approached me. They congratulated me on my victory and invited me back to their hotel room for a celebration. I figured I would be lonely being on my own in Atlanta for another day and rationalized that I deserved to cut it loose for one night.
I arrived at their place to a room service meal and 2 bottles of champagne on the table. Ralph proposed a toast to my medal and me. We ate and drank like champs. Full and quite tipsy we removed ourselves from the table and plopped down on a couch. After yet another drink Ralph reminded Joesph that they had a surprise for me.
