Definition of "Athlete"
“A person possessing the natural or acquired traits, such as strength agility and endurance that are necessary for physical exercise or sports, especially those performed in competitive context”.
Well an athlete I am not. It was the summer of 2006 that my BFF (Betty-Lou Mancuso) came up with idea that we should play outdoor soccer in a league run by Catalyst ,which at that time was located on Queen Street. I believe her daughter Coco was involved with Catalyst at the time and she was doing a little recruiting for them.
After playing for the summer I realized that I had neither the skills nor the stamina for this sport so it was decided we would start doing Abs every Thursday evening at the Queen Street site. Now this was more my style. Of course this didn't last long. Before I knew it we had graduated from Abs once a week to Crossfit twice a week. I was getting pretty excited because when I first started I couldn’t even do one sit-up and now I could do 50. This was indeed a personal milestone for me. I was 50 years old and could do 50 sit-ups.
Chris recommended to us the Saturday Group, and said we would really enjoy the workouts as well as the people. Well if anyone knows me you know how much of a people person I am not.
But once I gave in and started going to Saturday group I have never looked back. The people are warm and friendly and no matter what night I went, there is always someone cheering me on to finish.
I will always remember the day I walked in the gym and read that the workout was "Murph". I almost turned around and went home. There was no way I could do this, I would have to make a deal with Chris. Maybe I could do half but of course Chris would not agree to this. 3,2,1 go…….I started jogging, jogging, jogging and before long I had finished my first mile – wow I really finished it…..then came (100) pushups (200) sit ups and (300) squats….. finally finished…. now only 1 mile left. I just kept telling myself it was only a mile you can do it, yes you can do it…..as I rounded the last corner to the home stretch with no feeling from my waist down there was Mike Watson running towards me. When he reached me he turned around and started running to the finish line with me, I think he though I had gotten lost somewhere or perhaps stopped for a drink. He kept telling me, your almost there, don't quit now. I ran into the gym and all the participants cheered me on. I may have been way behind but at that moment I felt like I was the number one WINNER.
I will be doing the various work outs for the Open, but unless they have a category for over 80 I think I will just try to do my own personal best. Chris has persuaded me to compete in a couple of the competitions, but I am more comfortable just going to my weekly classes, with no pressure. I’m sure this doesn't mean that Chris won't stop asking me to compete.