Playing social soccer was a bad idea

For the first time in MANY years, I decided to go play some soccer this weekend and boy do I regret it! It was a Sunday afternoon and I got together with a couple of guys and decided to head over to Big Bay beach which is just across the road from where I stay. They are building a new development there called ‘Eden on the bay’. Really lovely development it is and it is certainly going to be a huge attraction in Cape Town when it is completed. Hopefully by Christmas we will be enjoying sun-downers there. So between the beach and this development there is quite a large open space of grass and that was the venue for our soccer game!

So there I was thinking I am super fit and the worlds best soccer player. I used, ‘used’ being the main word here, to be a very talented sportsman. I ran the 100 metre dash in record times, played a lot of rugby with some saying I should have continued playing rugby after I left high school and who knows, I could be busy preparing playing in the Tri-Nations for the Springboks rather than chatting to you in Rons Crib. But I do not regret it one bit as I am more than happy doing what I am doing today. So at the back of my mind I knew I ‘used’ to do all this sport stuff so I can still do it today. But after 8 years of no real physical activity I found myself in pain! A word of warning, “If you have not ran more than 100 metres in 8 years, DO NOT try do it again!”

I huffed and I puffed all over the field but only managed to last five minutes before I said I could not take this anymore and I went to cool myself off in the ocean. But it has got me thinking that I need to get some form of fitness back. I had been an active member of the gym but stopped going in January this year. I just did not have the time to go in my hectic schedule. But I think it is time I go back because it was rather embarrassing only being able to play five minutes of soccer. I really do not have an excuse for not being fit. I do not have to go to the gym to be fit now do I? The beach is across the road and I could easily go for a run every sunset or even a bike ride, after all I do own a bike but which has never been ridden in years! That surely would get me to a decent level of fitness and enough to start playing social soccer every Sunday afternoon and to show all these other players that Ron on the soccer field is actually RONaldinho!