Cardio For Life in 90 Minutes

Back in the March A4 Update, I shared that I played in a netball tournament at the kids' school.  The tournament was to be a three game set with a teams of parents, teachers, and students.

I'm not the most sporty gal you'll ever meet, but I don't think that was a factor when they created the team.  They needed players, and I happened to walk out of the playground with the parents' team organizers.  Here's how it went down:

"Holly, what are you doing next Wednesday?" asked the mom.

"I don't think I have anything in my diary (British for calendar)," I said laughing to myself as I never have anything in my diary other than what day I'll meet Matt for lunch.  

"There is a parents v. students v. teachers netball tournament after school.  Do you want to play?"

"Um, what's netball?" I asked.

"It's a game kind of like basketball; it's pretty easy to learn.  Look up some videos on YouTube and you will be fine," the mom said.  

"I'm in!" I cheered hoping that I could pull it off.  

Fast forward to the next Wednesday.  I thought I'd look up the game I was to play in just a few short hours.  Take a gander at this YouTube video.  It explains it way better than I can.    

Goal Shooter?  Wing Attack?  What sections can each player go into?  Where's the backboard?  I started to get sweaty.

Our game was against the students.  No problem I thought.  We can take on some short kids.  Then they showed up.

In matching uniforms.

Crap.

What commenced next was similar to the video above, but with a lot more huffing & puffing and sweat on my part.  After a certain amount of time the players had to change positions, although I have no idea what positions I played.  All I needed to know was how far I could go on the court.  Once I knew that, my next job was to block my opponent.  Thankfully the adults' height proved a benefit in the game but only slightly.

I spent the short break before our next game against the teachers by chugging water and regulating my breathing.  My lungs are not used to that degree of physical activity.  

The game against the teachers was equally as exhausting.  Happily the teachers won and they had to play the third game against the students.

I was proud of myself for taking the risk to play netball in front of a whole mess of people I don't know.  It helped me meet some new moms that I would not have met at morning drop off.  Plus, I think my kids were pretty proud to see me too!  

Big risk = Big reward