I am.... An Athlete

 I am.... An Athlete. 

   Boy, this is one I thought I would never write. I have never considered myself to be athletic let alone an athlete. I had always considered myself to be a spectator or, at best, cannon fodder. From my Asthma to my shyness, I have always had an excuse not to participate. Last one picked for the team, a pylon, a body on the field to meet a minimum number of players, that was me. 

   As I entered my late 20's, something changed. On a whim I decided to start going to Gold's gym. It was embarrassing, I was the 98LB weakling (175 actually), but instead of getting sand kicked in my face it was the unpleasant rain of others' sweat. The guys there were massive, intimidating, and looked down on me like I was there to clean up after them not work out, but something very positive happened from this. 

   Enter a lady name Wolfe (yes Wolfe). She ran the Muay Thai kickboxing classes at the gym. Just by pure chance, I asked her about the class. She immediately took me in and my love for Martial Arts was born. While I will admit that Muay Thai kickboxing was not for me, her passion for fairness and commitment to her craft was infectious. Within 6 months of starting her class I had dropped 6Lbs and was in the best shape of my life (I was 29). I was lean, I was happy, I had energy to spare, I was able to do things I had only dreamed of before. But alas, Golds Gym shut down and Wolfe moved on to some other city, I figured that this was the end of the new me. But wait, there is more.

   Enter the Chinese Boxing Connection. The owners John and his wife (I think Michelle) welcomed me with open arms. They ran me HARD. Their classes took things to a new level, absolute cardio and fighting techniques, no talking, no rest, gogogogogogo. I will admit it was a little to much for me but I stayed with this for about 1-1/2 years then my schedule changed and I was no longer able to attend their classes. I was bummed out. All my gains in fitness quickly started to fade. My 167 became 180 then 195 then 210 then 225. But wait, there is more.

   Enter Silent River Kung Fu. Life changing, again. I won't tell you things you already know about SRKF, cause if you are reading this and you are a student at the school, you know, you understand. This is what I have been looking for my entire life. And this brings me where I am in this blog, I am an athlete. 

   I was sitting with my son-in-law last Sunday. He was talking to me about a guy trying out for a NFL team, the amazing feats this guy could do and how Josh (son-in-law) could never imagine doing things like that. Now Josh is no slouch, he is a former footballer, very fit, lives right, very healthy. Out of the blue, the topic of my Kung Fu came up and Josh proceeds to compare me to this NFLer. WHAT!! He starts talking about the things we do at Kung Fu and how when he is my age (51), he hopes to be in 1/2 the shape I am in. This took me aback. Here is a mid 20's athlete complimenting ME on my fitness, calling me an athlete. I was speechless. I needed time to process this. 

   So now here I am writing a blog about me being an athlete, and thinking to myself that I need to cut this short cause I have a workout to do, hmm, guess I am an athlete (thanks Josh).