Leaving it on the field...

For 24 years I've belonged to a sorority. It's hard to believe, if you know me, that I ever even pledged a sorority but... In classic group think mentality "my friends were doing it". At the time it was a pain in the ass. It distracted me from school and work and everything else (sometimes in a good way, sometimes not so much). But as time went by and the friendships that I made as a result of being in the sorority solidified in deep meaningful lifelong relationships, the positive side is pretty much all I see when I look back. 

Each year the tiny campus that I went to school at hosts "Greek Games". The sororities and fraternities spend the week competing in everything from darts to pool to a canoe joust to dodgeball during the week in preparation for the "real competition" on the last Saturday in April. This is when alums travel from all over to come take part in the festivities. 

I've gone back for Greek Weekend a handful of times over the years but haven't competed in much due to back and hip issues and... Let's face it... At my peak weight, I couldn't keep up with the 20 year olds!

I wasn't planning to go this year but heard that we had a very slim showing of alumnae so I rallied some troops and headed north. Way north! Machias, Maine is just east of the North Pole - or so it seems when you are driving driving driving driving to get there! Thankfully I picked up a good friend halfway there and we chattered away the last four hours or so. 

I had realized before I got there that I was probably going to have to participate in the games... But I didn't anticipate playing in ALL of the games! 

I'm pretty terrible at basketball. About the only basketball asset that I've got is plenty of height but I am not a shooter and I don't really get all of the rules. So when one of our three 3-on-3 players fell and banged up her knee, all eyes were on my height and soon I found myself in the game. I figured that if I could keep them from scoring and rebound the ball and get it to one of the other girls to shoot it, I just might be helpful. Much to my surprise, I was! I even scored two baskets! Had they not changed the rules halfway through the tournament, we would have won but... We came in second. 

The it was off to the volleyball court where I am much more confident in my skills. Again my height is an advantage but so were all those years serving in a tiny gym in grade school as I learned to control my serve. I managed to have some pretty good scoring runs on my serves and we won half of our games. To be fair, the half we lost were to the girls that are or were on the university volleyball team so I think we held our own pretty nicely!

Then it was off to lunch. We had an hour and had just sat down at a local pizza place when I got word that things had been changed and instead of starting at 2pm, we were starting at 1:15pm. It was 1:08pm so... No lunch! Thankfully I had brought apples and trail mix and someone else had crackers and water so that's what we survived on until dinner at 6pm. 

Then it was off to the street hockey competition. THIS is OUR domain. I don't really know why because we only had one former field hockey player on our team but we dominated those games. It was pretty funny to look up and realize that of the six of us on the "rink", four of us were 43 and 44 years old! We played every minute of the games and did a damned fine job of running circles around those girls! 

The last competition for me was the tug of war. If I can help it, I'll never do another tug of war... Seven hours of playing all of the previous games was easier than bending down to get my shoes on after the tug of war. I felt like my spine had separated at each vertebrae and it took a while for them to find each other again. 

As the day wore on, we also realized that our team of 40+ year olds was unusual. There were other people there representing other organizations that were in our age range but very very few of them did much more than sit in chairs on the sideline and cheer. 

It probably sounds braggy but I'm actually just really proud of my 40+ dream team! We have all been dedicated to getting in shape and you could REALLY tell that it was working from our endurance and stamina throughout the day. And we had a TON of fun!

At the end of the day Saturday I was completely exhausted and, very unlike me, fell sound asleep in the middle of a room of chattering women. When they teased me about being in my pjs at 11pm during Greek Weekend, I joked that a finely tuned athletic specimen such as myself must tend to her instruments' needs... So I ate, drank a ton of water... And passed out. Another first for me at Greek Weekend is that I had ONE alcoholic beverage the entire weekend. 

In the end, we came in second and that's NOT a comfortable place for us! When I was active in school, we hadn't lost in 10+ years and that streak continued until we had passed 25+ years. Now we haven't won in the last three years and that's not okay! Especially when the fraternity that has won have taken poor sportsmanship to a new level. They need to be put in their place!

So I've sounded the rally cry and am urging our era to spend the next twelve months getting fit so we can go back and claim the win once again! We can do it!