Friday Sports Life: Action Netball

Netball

So last Friday we had a great evening in Canary Wharf with 'indoor sports life'. It went really well, because Saturday mornings have become WAY too cold to attempt outdoor activities, so it's been shifted to Friday nights. There was action netball, football and cricket in our venue and there must have been about 80 girls just for netball. It was so much fun being on the court again. I had almost forgotten how much I love the game (which is not surprising, considering it's been about 3 years since I've set foot on a course...). But once we got started we got into the groove of things and everything sort of came flooding back. It was as though I'd never stopped playing, except for one small little detail- I was so unfit that I nearly passed out, or threw up, or did whatever it is you're supposed to do when you realise that your chest is too small for your lungs that are desperately trying to draw a nice deep breath and are being constricted by your ribcage. I was sweating and seeing stars (or was it black dots...?) and the worst thing of all- I tasted blood after 5 minutes!!!! 5 minutes!!!!!! (anyone who knows sport knows that this is the worst sign of unfitness in the world) Somehow that was not part of the nice idyllic image I had conjured about getting fit again. I knew there'd be sweat and heat, and possibly a bit of out-of-breathness going on, but not blood. I was horrified.

(Indoor Court)

Another thing I had failed to remember was that this was ACTION netball,
which meant nets at the sides and top of the court, as well as a narrower court with only 6 players a side. This whole formula pretty much means that the ball doesn't go out, so the game doesn't stop. There are fewer players, so you're running more and pretty much you're going at double time. Great. Lucky for us we only played 2 halves of 10 minutes each, not the usual 4 quarters of 10-15 minutes. I would have died. But it gets worse...yes, I said WORSE. After the game once we had more or less regained our composure we were sitting around chatting, and I had this wonderfully insane idea that it all ended there, and that I would have forgotten the whole ordeal by the following morning. HA! I wish. When I woke up on Saturday to get ready for work I tried to get out of bed. Uhm, bad idea. 'Methinks the muscles doth protest too much!' I hurt. Badly. All over. I had pains where I didn't even know it was anatomically possibly to have muscles. I was stooped over like a 90 year old grandmother for about 20 minutes until I got everything warmed up. And even then it was a struggle to get through the day without wincing at every step.

(Court info)

So what am I going to about it I hear you ask? Get right back on that court next Friday and do it all again. Crazy, I know, but I love it.