As I approach my 40th birthday (not for several months), I have been thinking about about getting older. One thing I have really been thinking about is sports. I have always liked doing athletics. I loved swimming, bike riding, stilts, pogo stick, and roller-skating, football(with the kids in the neighborhood) as a kid, and volleyball. In High School I did some hiking and back packing, lifeguarded and taught swimming lessons, and swam on a swim team (I was pretty good, but not great). I got discouraged that I was not better. I was also busy with school and my job etc, and didn't try too many other sports. In college I did a few triathlons, took a surfing class, and took a volleyball class. I even joined the LaCrosse team (a sport I knew absolutely nothing about, but they needed players, and I saw a flyer, so I joined), I didn't do particularly well, but I sure learned a lot!
As I am getting older, I am realizing that my ability to do sports won't last forever, and I better get to all the sports that I have always wanted to do. I need to get to them now, and not wait until I am old to try them. So, ever since my son started kindergarten, I have started little by little to do more and more sports. I used to just walk or run or do workout videos (boring), to try and stay in shape, I also had a gym membership for a while, also boring). But now I am hiking, biking, and doing taekwondo, and in the summer, I try to get some surfing in, even though I am not good at all (when I can schedule a 2 hour drive to the beach). I am realizing that doing these things really make me feel good. I now find physical activities that are fun, and go for it. I love being older and doing these things. There is no pressure, I do them because I want to be good at them for myself, and because I want to have fun. I don't do them because a big championship meet is coming up. I have no preasure to be the best. I know I will never be the best, and I could care less, I just want to be my best, and have fun. I guess that is the blessing of getting older. I am becoming less self conscience, and learning to overcome the feeling of embarassment when I mess up, or look awkward because I am learning a new skill. If I want to do it, I have to start at the bottom, I might look silly, but it is better than sitting on my behind and watching everyone else having fun doing it while I am not. Also a great benefit of getting older - less and less care for what others think about you. When I first started Taekwondo, I was the only woman in the class, and there was one younger man (20's). Everyone else was a teenager or kid. I felt very akward, but I wanted to learn it so bad, so I got my courage together and just did it. I am glad. I am sure I looked so silly but I kept telling myself it was better than sitting there and watching. And yes, old dogs can learn new tricks!! (It might just take a little longer, and they might look a little silly.)
I found this quote which kind of sums up what I am feeling "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skin in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally warn out, and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!'" (Hunter S. Thompson).
Now I don't mean wild and crazy dangerous stuff, or things that are quite bad for you. I mean working hard, and sweating and taking the reasonable chance of falling down or getting a few bruises and scrapes here and there. Trying new things, and taking reasonable chances. For example, in Taekwondo class, in sparing, I often get my shins bruised up, or a particular opponent might accidently hit me too hard. I love it, it makes me tougher, and it won't kill me. Pain that doesn't indicate a life threatening problem, and is temporary, that you know the cause of, is fine. It can be very good for you to learn to get past it and endure. I actually learned that giving birth. When I learned to just relax and feel the pain and walk around a lot, and not try to fight it, it wasn't as bad, and I didn't have to be afraid, because it was just part of giving birth. But when I tensed up and tried to fight it, it was almost unbearable, and I felt I would not get through it. Often when we are doing a hard exercise, I tell myself, "I had three babies, this is easy compared to that, I can do this!"
It feels good to sweat hard after a ton of physcial exercize, or hard physcial labor. The natural feeling is to avoid it, but after I do it, I always feel good. It also feels good to go from sweaty and gross and exhausted, to being cleaned up and looking nice. Like you can be two different people, you are not stuck with one identity.
I am also starting to care less and less about my imperfections. Yes, my chin still bothers me, but aside from jaw surgery, there is nothing I can do about it. My tummy is not as flat as it should be, but It got stretched out having 3 wonderful kids, so it was worth it. I have 10 pounds to loose, but my BMI is still in the normal range, so I am not super motivated to loose it. I guess I am liking my body more and more the way it is, wrinkles, bad chin, and an extra 10 pounds and all. I like it because it does the things I need it to to have fun, and fulfill my responsibilities. It rode 25 miles in the Tour de Palm Spring yesterday. It hikes up the bump and grind trail for me (a hard local hike), it surfs for me, it punches and kicks my opponents for me, etc. I am so glad it does these things. I need to use it, and use it as much as I can until I am too old or unable to do these things. I don't want to look back and say that I regretted not trying something.
The other added benefit to lots of physical acitivity: not getting super over weight. I am about 10 pounds overweight, and I love to eat. I would probably be really fat it I didn't exercize so much. Food just tastes so good. I can enjoy it more because I do a lot of exercize. I try to eat healthy, but even when I eat healthy food that tastes good, I can eat a lot.
Another thing is that when you accomplish something hard physcially, you feel fantastic. I remember the first time I finished a triathlon (shorter distance). It was such a big accomplishment for me. I didn't come in first, I didn't have a fantastic time, but I knew I did something most people had not. I felt great. I felt the same when I went to a Taekwondo competition. It is especially nice to do well when you are nervous about it.
One thing that I don't understand is why there aren't more women my age in martial arts. I have been to a few taekwondo competitions, and I have been the only one in my age/gender division. With so many kids in it, why don't more moms do it? They bring their kids and sit there for an hour when they could be doing it with them. I guess I am an oddball, but I would rather be like this than not. Maybe some people just think it is not normal. Or they have to fit a certain cookie cutter type life, or they are afraid of looking silly (that is one of my weaknesses). I know some people are just not interested, or they physically can't do it or their schedule doesn't permit it. But at a large competition, there should be more than one person in the 30 to 40 year old women's age group.
I am seeing more and more senior citizens doing athletics around here. There were a lot of older folks doing the Tour de Palm Springs. Also two weeks ago they had a sports festival (like a mini-olympics) for people 35 and up. Tons of seniors were doing that. It is great. And sports events like triathlons and the Tour de Palm Springs, you have fun, don't care if you were first. You just want to do your best, and enjoy it. So really any age can do it and love it.
It also makes you feel young again. Of course you feel good when you exercise a lot, but kids love to ride their bikes and explore, we as adults can do that as well with hiking and biking. Kids love to play in the mud, etc. There are fun races with obstacles for adults of all ages. Wouldn't it be fun to climb up a hay bale, jump over fire and crawl through thick mud? YES!!! We don't have to stop having fun just because we grown up and get respectable. We can actually get younger by doing physical exercise as well. I lifeguarded in High School, and one man who always came to lap swimming was one particular very healthy older doctor. Before I knew him, he was fat and very unhealthy. He found out that he wouldn't live long just because of his weight and all that. So when he reached a certain age (60 I think), he decided he would get younger instead of older. So he started exercising. He swam all the time. He also ran and rode bikes. He became a great triathlete. He was so good, that one time I was watching the Hawaiian Iron Man (one of the top races in the world) on TV, and they did a 10 minute spot on him. He was one of the oldest men in the race. I was amazed.
I don't think you have to be "athletic" either. I am kind of "athletic", but not super athletic. I know lots of "athletes" who were really good in college, and High School, but now they really don't do much. Other people I know are not particularly "athletic", but they are always swimming, doing martial arts, biking, etc. So I ask this question, who is truly the athlete, the one who is talented and does nothing, or the one who is not particularly athletic (or maybe very unathletic), but does it anyway. There are many kinds of athleticism (endurance, speed strength, etc). Maybe the most important kind is stick-to-it-iveness. The ones who do it daily, no matter how talented, or untalented they are. But enjoy it and love it, and feel good. As I get older, that seems to really be the most important and perhaps the only qualification to be an Athlete. Therefore, I am an athlete!
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