Day 4,283—6 Runs until the Shippey 100!—

 

It was way too windy today, which made me think about next weekend, as I have been watching the weather almost every day to see what the prediction is for the race. Right now, it looks like this will be my first time running it when there is no snow on the ground. The last prediction I read it said it was going to be windy, and the low was in the teens, but straight up cold doesn’t scare me as much; it is usually the cold plus being wet from either snow or rain that causes so many problems.   

        Yesterday morning I thought about going to a trail today, but I decided to play it safe and run on the track again. I noticed the same adult with a young child practicing soccer. It seems an insane amount of time to be training a 8-year-old how to play goalie, but what do I know. It is just that the two have been there for my run this morning, and last weekend they were there both on Saturday and Sunday, even though it was later in the day when I ran. On Sunday, they were there when I got there and still there when I left. Maybe younger kid soccer is a different season because soccer is usually a fall sport.

        Part of my reaction was thinking it was just a father and daughter, and he was training her. She was taking it seriously and following directions. I saw them drilling where she was facing the net, and he would roll the ball towards her so she would jump around to catch it. It made me think about when I played goalie and how seriously I would take it, but it was only when I was around 10 or 11 because by the time I got bigger, I just stopped playing soccer. I tried indoor, but I was never a great goalie at indoor. It was just too big a change, and I lost my confidence. The same with trying to be a goalie when I got older for pickup games. 

I just couldn’t do it anymore, but for a few years, I was unstoppable and a great goalie. I went to a special goalie camp where I trained like this girl was training. It wasn’t a long camp, but I just remember that the guy running it was a jerk, and there was a girl who was awful. It was always strange as a kid, where most people were normal, but then I would do something like this where everyone was just the worst. Maybe that’s why I think this girl is training too much, only based on my experience. I don’t really know, and when I was that age, I loved doing anything that I was good at. I played a lot of sports, and I was never a great basketball player or a great striker in soccer, but I could defend, and it was validating seeing how frustrated the other team would get when they couldn’t get the ball passed me. I would see kids cry and throw a fit when they couldn’t score on a breakaway or missed a penalty kick. I didn’t relish in their anguish, but I loved finding evidence that I was good at something.