I did it! 2012 Nationals wrap up and reflection.

I made it to Nationals. I sucked the biggest suck of all, sucking a huge amount of suckiness out of a giant bag of suckiness, but I did what I set out to do.

I think I once said that I wasn't worried about the technical side of this; well, I should have been. I had loads of fitness, nice levels of recovery. I wasn't out of breath or felt horribly overpowered at all. What I felt was out gunned. The people I was wrestling just had more recent and relevant experience than I did. I was winning the match for third and I lost, placing forth overall. I'm not pleased with the result, but I am pleased with the fact that I got out there and participated.

I did not like how some in the crowd made idiotic comments about my age and participating. I know I'm 41, almost double the age of some of my opponents. But I got to tell you there were a lot of fat, out of shape 40 year old coaches I saw on the weekend. So ... I'm not thin, not yet anyways, but I'm fitter and having more fun than they are. My resting heart rate was 52 the other day. I lost 40 pounds this winter. My pants nearly fall off of me now. I got a message from an old wrestling buddy that he was jealous of my going to wrestle the Nationals. I look and feel better and I'm full of "pep". Who's the winner here?

Meh, I do hate how I look in this singlet:

Yeah, that's me in the blue. Ugh. But at least I'm out there, trying something totally different.

In any case, I will train tomorrow and I will keep posting on this site. But I have to ask ... why? I mean ... what is my "why" now? Why train? For rugby? For the Spartan Race or the Tough Mudder? By the way, I'm doing those events, but with an eye to them like they are a made up thing, like St. Valentine's Day or something. I'm thinking that question was never really answered before this, as I had the Nationals as a target to train for.

Just as an aside here, I saw this video today:



I mean ... that's fit, man. I'm not sure I would have passed this fitness test two years ago, but now? The 5k run time might be my issue, but that would be it.

To get back to my main idea and to finish off this post ... So ... what do I do, change the title of this blog or start a new one... In other words .... "What's next?"