Chapter 93: The Non-Sporting Life
Things change. Sometimes you don’t realize it until well after the fact.
While reading over some of my previous entries, I was amazed at how much different this year has been compared to the last.
Sports have always been a big part of my life, so let’s have a quick recap of the year:
Mountain Biking: Last fall around this time, I had just gotten into it with my coworkers, and while all of them are still around, there had been no talks whatsoever about doing rides this season. The summer has come and gone, and my bike continues to sit dormant in the storage room.
Tennis: This spring, I had been anxious to play again, so I got an earlier than usual start on the season, but it ended earlier than expected as well. I’m not sure why, but I lost my urge to play by early July, which was still the prime of the tennis season.
Softball: In the spring, I had signed on to play on my coworker’s softball team as a fulltime member. I had expected to get better as I gained more experience, but that was not to be the case. I don’t know if it was a sophomore slump or what, but overall I performed quite poorly this season. I felt less confident in the outfield, and my hitting had deteriorated as well. It got to the point where I ended up being put near the bottom of the lineup. Our team as a whole didn’t do very well either, and we took our fair share of tough losses. All in all, it was a pretty bad season, and even if they want me back for next year, I don’t think I want to be a fulltime member. At most, I’d want to be a sub if they need me.
Poker: Ever since Elaine came back from Kamloops, I had pretty much stopped playing poker completely. I may have played the odd Sit and Go, but the days of spending hours playing online have come and gone. As I mentioned, I mainly liked playing because I enjoyed it, not because of the monetary factor, and it got to the point where there was a higher likelihood of getting frustrated at bad beats than feeling satisfaction from winning a nice hand, so the incentive to play was greatly reduced.
Bowling: I was once a decent bowler that could average 150, with a high game of 209. Now I’m just a hack who struggles to break 100. I guess the problem with being a spin bowler is that it’s harder to get back into a rhythm compared to a straight bowler after an extended absense from the game. Last Thursday, we had a company bowling event, and I couldn’t believe how bad I was. I couldn’t aim for the life of me. I was actually trying that first game, and I scored a 78. That’s right, a 78. I don’t think I’ve EVER bowled that badly in my life. The second game was no better. After five frames, I think I had a score of just 41, so I gave up. I started doing my freestyle bowling with the between the leg shots, the kick shots, and the bowling from the seats shot. I finished with a score of 51, which actually enabled me to win the pity trophy for the lowest score. Me, winning an award for the lowest bowling score. Now that’s ironic.
Soccer: Our company has only played one match in the past year, and that was a month ago versus UTStarcom again, the team that I almost got into a fistfight with the last time we tangled on the turf. We played them to a narrow 2-1 victory, to bring our unbeaten record to 6-0-2 all-time. It’s pretty impressive when we usually play against companies with staff numbers that greatly exceed our’s.
Go-Karting: The last time I had gone go-karting was over five years ago. That was when my buddy Adam was working there. We had met while playing F355 Challenge in the arcades. A few months ago, we had a company event at TBC, and it was a blast. We each had two races, and the fastest overall lap time determined the winner. I expected myself to win, and would have been very disappointed with any other result. How could I honestly believe I had the ability for real competitive racing if I couldn’t even beat my coworkers? Fortunately, I did manage to win the title fairly convincingly. For my birthday, I organized another go-kart event, and it was a blast. I’m now planning on making this a yearly event…
I had talked about F355 Challenge back in Chapter 8. For awhile, I think back in 2001, Adam and I were competing to be the best at the game. I persisted at the game longer, and eventually learned my nazodrift technique to became world champion. However, I’m the one who now ultimately looks up to him. Adam was very similar to me, a young Asian kid who believes he has the talent to do well in real racing. The difference is he had the vision and determination to actually do something about it, whereas I just let my dream fade away. I think it was in 2003 when he went to attend the well known Skip Barber Racing School down in California. As you can well imagine, racing school isn’t cheap, with each weekend easily costing $4000, whether it’s for classes, practice, or racing. I haven’t followed his progress very closely, but it sounds like he has had some success, but not to the point where he has made it as a professional racer. He finished second in the Western Regional Championship Formula series in 2004, and it seems he is now running in the National Championships. I have no idea how much it has cost him so far to realize his dream, but I would have to assume it’s well over $100k.
The most serious racing I’ve ever done was just a few autocross events at Boundary Bay, back around 2004. The events were fun, but it just wasn’t worth it to spend an entire Sunday just to get in a few quick 30-second runs through the cones. I was still driving the Camry then, so certainly I couldn’t be competitive, especially when they had the Mini Cooper in the same vehicle class. One of my goals in life is to one day go to racing school and get some real racing experience. It may be too late to be a professional racer, but never too late to get behind the wheel.
Finally, there’s volleyball, the sport that has been the most impacting and has helped shape my life since high school. This past Friday was the first time I had played indoor volleyball in over half year, and I had only played grass volleyball a couple times total this year. I felt so incredibly rusty and had a difficult time reading the balls. I was quite sore the next day, evidence that it has been far too long since I last played. I’m going to try and go to Bonsor regularly again.
