Pushing 50

So, I played softball today.   Sort of.

Thought back.  I probably haven't *played*, as in gone through all the motions, since high school.  Which is probably over 30 years.  Which is literally painfully obvious.

Oh, I've slapped a few balls around with a bat, and thrown a ball around and played catch.   But I've always been sucky at fielding flies.  And apparently, it's been a long time since I've tried to literally sprint.   For one thing, I forgot to stand up after I tipped the first pitch lamely about 6 feet in front of me.  I looked at it and thought, "crap, really?"  But I then thought, "no way am I just going to give this to them."

So I started running.  But it wasn't the way I remembered.  Turns out you do need to straighten up a bit before you start running.  I almost lost balance.  Next 5 or 6 strides I spent mostly trying to accelerate while recovering my balance, which I'm sure wasn't pretty.  I tried to turn on the afterburners, but apparently they're all clogged up with carbon or something.  I was just about at First, and the throw wasn't there yet, so I tired to lean into my last step to hit the base before the ball got there (I knew where it was, I don't know how)  .... and that was a bit of a mistake.  You should really run across the bag, which I didn't.  Spent too much effort trying to push the foot down to land on it sooner.

The unexpected shorter stride (and WHY should it have been unexpected? Duh!) caused me to stumble, almost trip (flat footed?  how?  I dunno, I apparently managed) and I fell and rolled on my left arm and shoulder.  The ball beat me there, I already knew.

I'm really glad nobody was filming it.  Nobody was filming it ... right? :-)

So I have a substantial bright red raspberry on my left elbow, and a bit of a scratch through the shirt on my left shoulder.   I was out.  It was my only at bat (we lost by the 10 run rule).  My lower back hurts.  And I was generally tuckered out running around within about a 30 foot ellipse in shallow right field from my second base position.

Man.  I thought I kinda sucked in high school.   I'll be 50 in a few months.

I probably should have done more of this earlier in life.

And I should take up running a bit.  Just for practice. In case I need to get away from a rabid porcupine or something.