A little bit of Everything...

I woke up at 6am and was debating if I should do the 5km race. I could feel a cold coming on and all I could imagine was having to get there 90 minutes before the race to register and then have to wait around, in the -5 C cold, to run a race that would take less than 25 minutes. Then I'd have to come home and run another hour. I decided to go back to bed.

I could tell I'm getting sick, I really haven't given myself any time to recover from the tonsils, eating too much ice cream and junk while the tonsils heal, then getting right back into training before the doctor said I should and having to many beers on Friday night. Getting sick was inevitable.

I slept until 1 pm and when I woke up I wasn't to motivated to do anything, but I knew I had to get out of the house, lying down was going to start to make my back hurt.

We went to Reid's hockey game and I reluctantly had a couple of beers. I started to feel better, kinda like Popeye and spinach.

Today was supposed to be my long run day and after Reid's game my attitude changed and I was pumped to go for one. When I got home, I put on the ipod and with my happy beer buzz I went for a 1.5 hour run. My nose was running the whole time. It felt great. My left Achilles is still a little tender.

When we got back, Reid and I drove an hour to Hockey Life, a huge hockey store. I ended up buying a helmet and stick for me and a practice jersey for Reid. At his point I was slightly starting to bonk, so we went to Boston Pizza to carbo load.

My weekly hockey game is every Sunday night and since I missed the last 3 due to the Marathon and 2 weeks of tonsil recovery, I was looking forward to tonight's game.

This year is the first year I played since I was 15 years old and I sucked when I played then. I joined a league for average and below average men over 30 years old. I have a couple of guys from Australia that are on the team. Like me, the can't stop very well, most games we end up running into each other. So far I have 6 goals and 2 assists in 8 games. I'm number 13 and tuck my jersey in my pants just like Gretzky.

The last game I didn't play well and didn't score, I was mentally sicing myself out. I even wondered if I'd ever score again. I was questioning whether the previous goals were just luck?

So I've had a few weeks to think about my next game, went to a Leafs game, watched Reid's games, found a helmet that fit and got a new stick. I was ready.

The result was that I had the best game of the year. We won 1 - 0 against the best team (Black) in the league and I scored the only goal. But that was not why I thought I played well. I skated hard, back checked, was aware, broke up some plays, dove to break up a scoring chance and made a couple passes. I wasn't stiff, I was relaxed.

Alice and Reid came, but of course they missed my goal because Reid wasn't feeling good and during the game, Alice drove him home. My luck..

I was hoping he would have got the goal on video. My first game I played, they came and watched and left just before the game ended, just when I scored my first goal. My life story...

I'm now home, writing in my blog and enjoying my first Amstel light from my birthday beer boot. It tastes good.