I started, kinda out of the blue, playing hockey in my early 30s. There's a whole other blog about that and a bunch of other hockey stuff here: Ms.Conduct. The short version is that learning to play goalie as your first true athletic endeavor is sort of a dumb thing to do if you like to be good at the things you do.
However, if you wish to gain a deep sense of humility and have your hips hurt all the time, then goaltending is a really solid choice! I was not particularly good at it and my glove hand was especially bad, so every time I made a glove save, it was like that glowing briefcase in Pulp Fiction. I looked in my glove and my heart swelled with pride at the 6 oz of rubber parked there.
So, when it was time to get my mask painted, a little self-deprecating humor felt very "me."
Hence the "even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes" theme. Not the best pic but, trust me, my mask is epic. I love it.
But now, running is my jam. The Blind Squirrel is on new, less icy adventures and you can read about them here.
Who cares if you run? Isn't this like a blog about your fantasy football team?
I dunno. As I always have, my personal blogs are mainly for me. And if they have the bonus effect of entertaining or informing others, all the better.
I always wanted to be a runner. I tried several times to do Couch to 5k and just couldn't get past the part where you actually start to run more than a couple of minutes at a time. I always got hurt or whatever. It was dumb.
But this time, it stuck and stuck hard. So, after all those years of watching from the sidelines, I am in the race and I'm really proud of myself! Plus, I'm learning a ton and I'm a writer... a technical writer, even, which means I love to explain things and help people with my writing. So, maybe someone will get something out of my posts.
At the very least, it's one less running post for my non-running friends on Facebook to suffer through.
What is your running background? Are you any good?
I started running in April 2012 and I'm starting this blog in November 2013, so a year and a half after starting to run, I ran my first half marathon (Tyler Rose). Two weeks later, I did a duathlon, and then a week later, I ran my second half marathon to the tune of a 25 minute PR and a 2:30 finish.
So, no, I'm not that good, but I am All In and excited to get better and better. I'm not the slowest but I'm sure not breaking any records but my own. That's the beauty of running though... I'm only competing with myself. Unless there's an Athena division, and then I'm competing with all the tall girls and all the heavy-set girls.
What else do you do?
I'm a huge hockey freak. I played goalie for 5 years before retiring, I watch games every night during hockey season, have Dallas Stars season tickets, and I used to be a hockey writer. It's tattooed on my psyche at this point -- part of who I am.
I also have two awesome dogs, Louie and Major, who are the furry little loves of my life. Whatever maternal instinct I was supposed to have for humans, I have for dogs instead.
I'm a Twitter junkie, too, but I mostly tweet about hockey. That's here.
