Because I’ve been told you only roll the dice once

2

March 7, 2014 by Amy B

So this is happening this weekend.

Goalie is not something I normally do. In fact, I usually only do this when someone is really desperate for a goalie. I happen to have equipment (which is a large part of why many people don’t do this). In fact, I’d say it’s about a 50/50 split.

1. I don’t have the special equipment necessary for standing in front of a net and letting people fire rubber weapons at me.
2. I don’t have the crazy required for standing in front of a net and letting people fire rubber weapons at me.

I, however, seem to have all the required equipment/crazy for this.

I started playing hockey when I moved to Houghton in 2005. Scott was a player and after re-learning how to skate (and more importantly, STOP), I started playing in a drop-in session with a bunch of guys, some of which were also learning the game (and the rest were just too old and slow to play with the young guys anymore). I ended up playing with the women’s club team for a few years, living the travel hockey dream of spending weekends on the road in cheap hotels, eating bad food, and playing games at insane hours of the morning/night. It was pretty awesome. I had a really good time doing that before the kids came along.

These days I’ve focused more on running (easier to do with a family) and have stayed away from the road trips and smelly locker rooms. But when someone does offer me an invitation to lace up and play, even if it’s as the semi-sacrificial lamb between the pipes, I have a hard time saying no.

Note: Girls, you’d better score a lot of goals this weekend to make up for my performance. I’m apologizing in advance.

One thing I do promise, every time I get on the ice, despite how craptacular I am in net, I do always give 110%. So there’s that. Whatever that’s worth.

I’ve debated whether to put in my long run this morning before we leave, and my gut is telling me no. I hate listening to my gut, but this hamstring/hip situation makes running feel really unnatural. A long run seems like it might aggravate it even more, and I’ve promised these women I’ll be there for them this weekend. Even if I’ll probably be the only one NOT showing up hungover to our morning games this weekend (hee), I think I’d better leave the shoes at home and just call this my forced rest from running while recovering from injury period.

Instead, I may put in some time on the bike later this morning and burn through a few more episodes of House of Cards. Damn, that Kevin Spacey.