An Active Summer: 2012

So for the summer of 2012, I can say I've really pushed myself to new levels... More than a year ago, a buddy of mine from the gym, and one of my closest friends, kept spouting the joys and wildnesses of Ultimate Frisbee, and I couldn't help but get sucked into the sheer enthusiasm that shone from him whenever he described the sweaty, mad craziness of the game. At first I was hesitant - I was so into my workout routine at the gym, and I feared turning my ankle, pulling my hamstring, or crashing into someone and putting myself out of the athletic loop for weeks. The A2Ultimate group in Ann Arbor, Michigan, I was told, had different leagues, and I was encouraged to join the Sunday Co-ed, which accepted newbies and old pros alike. Now, I've tried basically everything you can do solo, such as mountaineering, horseback riding, skiing, disc golf, tennis, weight lifting, running, kayaking, paddle boarding, mountain biking, snowboarding, yoga, snorkeling and so on, but I'd never played a team sport. So I felt a loose bolt of trepidation knocking around inside as I imagined finding myself on a field with teammates. On a trip up to Toronto with my dear friend Phil, we mutually agreed that Frisbee on the shores of Lake Ontario was a pretty awesome way to kick off the summer. And never having really thrown a Frisbee much, I was chagrined to realize that I wasn't all that good at it. I'm a very left-handed person, with ambidextrous tendencies for writing and drawing, but I discovered my forehand and backhand were only a left-sided possibility - throwing from my right was laughable. But Phil and I had fun, and I came home with an official Ultimate disc to practice with.

I felt like a complete idiot on the field, I'll admit. For the first game, I was the only girl on the field between both teams (to which my friend Art later declared "That should have been an automatic forfeit!"), but everyone was patient and took time to explain things to me. That said, Ultimate Frisbee happens fast, and so much of it is intuitive or experiential... It was hard to pick up on strategy, since I had no previous experience with that sort of thing. But by the end of the summer season, I knew what a Ho Stack was, I had played hard, my disc had stopped wobbling, and I could at least keep on my mark with some consistency. I'd just grasped my position and change of direction on foot for turnovers and defense, and we were at the last game. But at some point during every game, as I stopped to catch my breath and cheered people on by name from the sidelines, or as I stood waiting for the pull in the end zone and absorbed the breadth of the blue sky above us, I felt exhilarated, joyous and free. In the same summer there was disc golf, which I discovered was fun - horseback riding, and hang-gliding with friends up at Sleeping Bear. I also traded in my old cruiser bicycle for a used mountain bike, and went for 20 to 30 mile rides whenever time would allow.

 The Silver Surfer, loaded and ready for the wind...

 A favorite recollection came as I began to try windsurfing, and learned how to put together a 4.7 North Sail. With a Mistral 260 waiting for me in the shallows, I carried the sail (on my head) down to the water. As I grasped the boom to keep the sail snug to my skull, the plastic sail material lifted and dropped in the breeze, making a sound that resembled a loose, crashy bass drum. "John Bonham would love this," I thought. Then I contemplated the beautiful tribal women who carried baskets and urns of water on their heads, and wondered how I compared. A short time later I got on the water, and fell (and laughed) and fell, and fell, and yet somehow fell in love with it. Uphauling was hard at first - I couldn't believe how heavy the sail felt, and how awkward I was on foot as I balanced with it - but once I found my feet and anticipated the weight of the mast and sail, I was grinning like the Cheshire Cat and cruising around wondering how I had done it. The wind died off completely on my first day on the water, and I actually had to lay the sail down on the board behind me, kneel on the bow and paddle myself back to my put-in. But that was fun too. Carrying the sail back to the trailer (on my head) I felt a rush of bliss - I thought of the list of things I'd compiled as 'to do' in life, and realized that I couldn't quite check off 'learn to windsurf' just yet. I realized it wasn't a one-time thing... I realized 'keep windsurfing' should be on the list instead, and as I took the sail apart and put the gear away, I couldn't stop smiling. I clicked into a beautiful, exerted rhythm with the weights and cardio sessions at the gym, which I devoted to five days a week or more. I rode to the gym on the bike a lot, pairing this with mindful nutrition, amino acids, electrolytes and whey protein supplementation. The results were staggering. When my 38th birthday hit, I felt like I had become five years younger, rather than 12 months older. It's been a great summer - one of my best, really. And now the days are getting cooler, the nights are getting colder. The first of the autumn leaves are turning. It's my last one in Ann Arbor, and I find I'm nothing but excited as I power on into the future, looking forward to whatever comes next.