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| I did slightly better than this. |
How did I like it? It was fucking great.
I sucked horribly, but that was just my opinion. They guys who are "regulars" said I did okay, and I did make it clear that it had been a couple of decades since I was out on the ice.
The locker room hasn't changed in the time I've been gone - It's nice just to sit and bullshit with people while you are getting ready, and while I didn't really know anyone there, the was no uncomfortable "new guy" stigma.
The reason they don't make you feel uncomfortable in the dressing room? Because after they beat you left and right on the ice, you may not want to come back if they were assholes. I played defence (my old position) to start, but after realizing my legs weren't quite what they used to be (and after having someone get by me for the twelfth time) I moved up to the wing.
Hockey is so vastly different from running - I'm lucky I have some good base cardio or else I really would have been fucked out there - that being said, after you leg it up and down the ice a couple of times, your legs (and lungs) are burning. We only had one spare, so guys would take turns getting a rest on the bench, and it felt like I had barely sat down before someone else was calling for a change.
The scalding hot shower afterwards was simply phenomenal. It's tough to decide if it was because I was so exhausted or because my feet were like two cubes of ice. How is it
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| My feet looked like this. Minus the painted toes. |
I just know I'm going to be sore tomorrow. You know when you can just tell? Trust me - all the signs are there.
But get this: I want to go back.
I'm going to try the borrowed gear out a couple more times in the next week or two - just to make sure it's not the endorphins and nostalgia of my glory days clouding my judgement - and then I think I'll start getting some gear together that I can call my own. I checked with the wife on it, and her response was "I've been telling you to do that for years - you just never listened."
I don't even remember the conversation.
Serves me right.
Later.
Total Stats: 4 shots, 0 goals, 0 assists.
Glad you got out there, and made it back in one piece.
ReplyDeleteHusband is back on the ice for the first time in almost a year -- he tore his ACL last January and had to have surgery. He can only do the drop-in/pick-up (we call it RAT hockey here) games right now, but he's guaranteed happy the day he gets to play.
When you wrote about the locker rooms, I was certain you were going to mention the horrifying funk of hockey gear. There is nothing worse..
If there's one thing I don't miss about the locker room, it's that funk.
ReplyDeleteBeing the new guy, I didn't feel it was my place to comment on other's odors, lest my own be pointed out.