Bridgette Hobart’s Marathon Swim Story
Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Finger Lakes phenom, Bridgette Hobart. The stories just kept coming. So much goodness! Once we stabilized Bridgette’s connection, I tried to pry into what keeps Bridgette going. From what I can tell, she just can’t get enough. Striving for work life balance, marathon swimming seems to give her life just the spice she’s looking for.
I can’t wait to meet Bridgette in person some day and hope to have her back to find out more about the annual Finger Lakes Open Water Swim Festival.
Enjoy!
In her own words:
Bridgette’s story does not start with being born with the spirit of a fish. She failed swim lessons multiple times in her youth for demonstrating stubbornness by refusing to get wet. While still not a fan of getting wet or jumping into water, once in the water she finds a sense of peace only found during long relaxing swims. Bridgette started swimming on her 11th birthday by chance. While she struggled at swim tryouts getting across the pool, Bill Rusin (first coach) saw something in her which she did not see in herself. This became many wonderful years and many friendships through swimming. After college she set swim aside and began her career in accounting, went on to graduate school and then began her journey to become a CPA with a specialization in taxation. After many years in public accounting, she ventured into technology and then founded Paradigm Technology Consulting in 1999 to focus on financial applications and business process consulting. Bridgette sold Paradigm in 2017 as part of a succession plan but remains in the role of President today with a focus on manufacturing and distribution clients.
Life work balance has always been a struggle for her. In 2007 as her step grandmother, Agnes Hobart, was facing her own terminal illness she taught Bridgette how to live again by reminding her how much she loved swimming. She gave her an article she saved from a 1979 High School Athlete of the Week column where Bridgette was quoted “I started swimming when I was 11, so I’m going to celebrate 50 years of swimming and swim the English Channel when I’m 61.” This quote was after her first 1-mile Cayuga Lake crossing, a fun swim with the Cornell Swim Team after going to swim camp there during the summer of 1979. It was her first open water swim, and her Dad escorted the swimmers in his boat. At the end, a Cornell swimmer told her she was a natural and should swim the English Channel someday, and that comment stuck with her. Her beloved gram told her she is not getting any younger so she best get going and asked her to promise she would try upon her passing because ‘if you have enough time to drive to Binghamton every weekend to watch me die, then you sure have enough time to swim’. Bridgette kept her promise and joined US Masters Swimming soon after her gram’s passing in August 2007. She was 45 years old and had not swum since she graduated college in 1984.
In 2008 she did her first 1-mile point to point ocean swim and when the guards came out to ask her where she was going, she realized she needed to overcome her fear of the ocean and open her eyes if she wanted to return to shore and become a channel swimmer. After learning about the Triple Crown, Bridgette set out to complete those swims, ending in England. Her strategy to focus on length, then colder swims led to many swim adventures from oceans, rivers, lakes, channels, and staged swims, as well as many new friendships. But most of all, it was a way to finally achieve work life balance.
Much of the channel training was on Seneca Lake (NY), where she now has a cottage and operates Camp Dogged, and where she continues to train today and welcomes swim buddies to visit. A mishap in her first English Channel attempt in 2013 taught her to enjoy the adventures and it changed her way of looking at goals relating to swims. She wanted to swim with a purpose, enjoy the journey, and focus on raising awareness and funds for selected charities. Today her two annual swim festivals (NJ and NY) raise funds for animal rescue and K9 service teams. Many of her solo swims have raised funds for various charities.
She is a lake girl at heart and considers her NY Finger Lakes swims in 2015 her greatest and most enjoyable challenge and looks forward to more lake swim adventures. She founded Dogged Perseverance, Inc, a nonprofit entity, to host charitable swim events, solo fundraising swims and to operate Camp Dogged. Upon her Father’s passing in 2017, Bridgette purchased his 1964 46’ Chris Craft Constellation, Pipe Dream, and related boat houses and property on the Seneca Canal in Watkins Glen, NY, which is now referred to as Camp Dogged. She converted the property to short term rentals with net proceeds funding animal rescue groups. The Pipe Dream was renovated in 2019 to serve as a Crew Boat on hopefully a long Finger Lakes swim😊.
Bridgette learned during Covid when she kicked in to supplement missing contractors to complete Camp Dogged renovations, that she loved the physical nature of the work and the creative outlet of the design and fit out stages. 2021 continues to return Bridgette to work life balance issues as she continues her role with Paradigm, grows Camp Dogged, hosts 2 open water swim festivals, and oversees the restructuring of Hobart Stone. In her Dad’s final months, she promised him she would recover the Company he founded in 1960 and keep employees’ job locally in her hometown of Binghamton, NY. She purchased the company in 2018 and set swimming goals aside to minimize risks during the reorganization and conversion to an employee-owned company. As she approaches her 60th birthday in 2022, she hopes to leverage that milestone to define a swim goal bringing her focus back to achieving work life balance.
Bridgette currently resides in Lake Hopatcong, NJ with the best kayak escort and crew chief, her husband Bob Janeczko, along with their furry rescues – currently 3 dogs, 1 cat.
