The Ruminator

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Tuesday, October 04, 2005

A happy discovery

Apparently, I’m not as unfit as I thought I was. This heart-warming personal discovery came last night, courtesy of my first competitive game of Ultimate Frisbee.

For those of you who don’t know, Ultimate Frisbee is sort of like non-contact football, only with a frisbee, obviously. Since a frisbee can travel a long way very quickly, the game involves a lot of running, then changing direction quickly, and running some more.

I’m fundamentally opposed to the notion of running, unless being chased, and I certainly can’t understand the concept of running as an activity of itself, either for exercise or fun (a ‘Fun Run’ is, to me, an oxymoron). So it has been a long, long time since I’ve had to run for any sustained period of time. (Actually, I realised it would have been 14 years ago, when I last participated in team sports.) I had my doubts I would manage it, particularly because we were short several players, and did not have the option of subbing players on and off the field (unlike our opposition). This meant I not only had to run, I had to do it for the WHOLE game, which, to my mounting horror, lasts for an hour without a break.

I am therefore left with an enduring sense of mild astonishment and pride in the fact that, not only did I manage it, I can still walk today! This was such an unexpected display of health and fitness on my part, that it naturally required pizza and a couple of beers afterwards.

I will leave aside any assessment of my usefulness as a frisbee player, not to mention the fact that we didn’t win. But for a first game, with several newbies, with too few players, I think it was a very respectable, indeed a noble loss. And it’s onward and upwards for the rest of the season!

2 Comments:

  • At 10:00 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

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  • At 2:51 am, Blogger Peter said…

    I like to call it a gallant defeat :)

     

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