Why Won't My Body Do What I Say?

Every muscle in my body aches today. As a result I spent much of the day incapacitated. How did I get to this state? Allow me to explain...

I would say that I'm in reasonably good shape for someone pushing 40. I do the elliptical machine a few times a week, I do a lot of work in the yard, I do the occasional sit-up and push up. I even go for hikes when the kids allow it. Since I'm not a total load I decided that it would be a good idea to accept an invitation to play in a flag football league in my town. How hard could it be right? These weren't professional athletes - just a bunch of guys over 30 looking to run around a little bit on a Sunday morning. Great. I could run around a little bit, meet some new people,etc.

Yeah...well... not so great. Now as I said, I do stay active. What I don't do anymore though are wind sprints - which is basically what playing flag football this Sunday entailed. A punishing 1 1/2 hours of sprinting (on offense) and backpedaling (on defense). It didn't help that I was the slowest, least athletically gifted person there - so not only was I physically beaten (giving up at least 5 touchdowns); I also received an ego smack down.


At one point I turned to the jack rabbit quick Gastroenterologist who had already beaten me deep twice and asked:
"Am I pulling a plow behind me?"

He laughed and proceeded to run a blisteringly fast out-and-up route on the next play - taking it to the House yet again - highlighting my lack of conditioning to every player on the field.

At that point one of my teammates tried to provide support:

"You're in great position Joe. You're just giving up on the play at the very end."

Giving up??? What the hell? I never give up when I play sports (or anything). I am the most competitive person I know. The sad fact that I didn't share with my comrade in football was that I have an excruciatingly bad back which was just not allowing me to do what I wanted to. It was so frustrating...but I must admit it was fun to compete again, however badly. I'll be out there again this Sunday.