Why Not?

At the tender young age of 48 I took up Tae Kwon Do.  I have never been athletic, you could say I was a die-hard couch potato.  I figured, why not see if I could do it?. It looked fun and it was interesting to me.  As a person who loves to attend Comic Con style conventions locally, being able to act out a fight scene during a Live Action Role Play (LARP) was something I wanted to do in the back of my mind.  Also I needed to get active, and the treadmill – even while watching my Netflix backlog – was not enough to keep me interested in exercise.

What a difference that silly thought about LARP made.  Now three years later, although I’ve for all intents and purposes dropped out of Tae Kwon Do (I made it to super blue belt, yay!), I’m still active and doing something harder – inline speed skating.  I compete in our local league (local is North Carolina, Virginia – and if they had a team, West Virginia).  This past weekend I competed in our last league meet of the year, and WON third place.  Granted there were only three ladies skating in my age group (plus another lady from the one age group younger) I still know I earned my ribbon. Yes I did collect two of the four ribbons I WON.

Now if you’re still reading this, and shaking your head, I’ll tell you why I can proudly say that I collected what was in effect the last place ribbon in my events.  Simple, when I started competing two years ago, I had just gotten back on skates after 30 years.  I was also the only lady competing in my age bracket, and I was skating in races combined with ladies and men who were at least ten years younger than me.  I heard people laughing when I skated that first season. At one meet, I heard the announcer (who was also a skater) saying, “Hey let’s give her hand, she’s doing what 99% of you are not.”  My initial instinct was to feel shame, but that was for just a split second: I was having way too much fun and kept skating.  I was laughing because it was pure joy (I still laugh from the joy). I fell from tiredness TWICE: I got back up and finished my race. In my first meet,  the referees cut laps off my races, since technically I only needed to skate one lap.  I was skating with younger skaters who were lapping me 2 times on a 3 lap race.  Still I didn’t give up.  It was around that time that I remembered the Galaxy Quest battle cry, “Never Give Up, Never Surrender”.  I have made that my motto.

This last weekend while competing I didn’t hear the laughter. Instead I heard cheering and encouragement.  So many ladies and a few gentlemen came up to me and congratulated me.   I am more than three times faster than I used to be, so I don’t look as silly.  I still skate using fitness skate and I’m the only one in our league who does (which is a handicap as they are much slower than real speed skates).  My goal while racing is not to get lapped more than once.  I keep stepping (moving my feet while skating) until I cross the finish line, despite being in last place in all of my races.  I can see that my competitors (friends!), do ease up on me and don’t pass me the second time (despite my earnest requests for them not to ease up).  Still I keep skating all out trying to keep them from passing. I am tired and out of breath when I finish.  It is pure joy.

TMI: Let me explain why I wear fitness skates – it’s because I have to otherwise, it’s just too painful to skate.  I’ve tried stepping up to “real” speed skates, but I am so slow in them due to the intense pain that I have to stop, get back in control (lamaze breathing helps), and then start again.  I’m working on getting into real speed skates, but that will take a long time to train my body and mind to get past that level of pain (childbirth was less painful, lol). I’m waiting on a pair of inserts to arrive to see if that will help.  Speed skates are very hard internally; there is no give so they can transfer your energy efficiently and none is absorbed.  Maybe in five years I’ll have trained my feet so I won’t need the inserts, we’ll see.

If this is middle age craziness, I don’t see any end to this.  I figure, why not?

I’m in the middle.  The lady on the right end is my team mate and friend who also competes in my age group.  She’s been roller skating for years. One day I’ll pass her, BAZINGA!