Amputee Football/ NYC Ironman

The great thing about living in New York is that there's always so much going on.  No excuse to ever be bored; you never know what new experience waits just round the corner.   Apart from all the music, restaurants, museums and meeting people from all around the world, something I appreciate is the opportunity to develop new interests in the world of sport, to be inspired by superior athletes, test out where my boundaries really are, finding out what I'm good at, and not so good at.

Sat, Aug 10th, 2012.  In the morning, I went to a local sports club where members of the US National Soccer team had come to meet physiotherapists and members of the Rusk Hospital amputee support group, to tell us about the benefits of getting involved in this sport.   I consider myself 'lucky' to have been without two fully formed legs from birth, but for anyone else who has lost a limb, the worst thing you can do is stay at home and do nothing.  To fight off depression, improve confidence and self-esteem, the best thing you can do is pick a sport, be engaged, get in shape, and work up a good sweat.

After being told us how amputee soccer started in the States, and a few drills, we were told we'd have a little 5 a-side game.  The teams would be: amputees, all playing on crutches, without prosthetics,    versus the bipods, who had to take a shoe off and were not allowed to kick the ball with the shoeless foot.  Amputees are not allowed to touch the ball with their crutches - that is a 'handball'.

Amputee football - much harder than it looks.

Football has always been my number one game, and I loved playing it at school.  Even though I couldn't run, I loved taking part.  My friends would often let me play as goalkeeper, even though I couldn't dive to my left and did leak quite a few goals in over the years.  But I always enjoyed it, and wondered how good I would have been if I'd have been born with two legs.

So when we started our game, I was excited to show off my silky skills and prove what I could do on the football pitch.  Were they about to unearth amputee football's version of a Maradona, Pele, or Beckham, even at the admittedly very late age of 38?

I quickly found out that the game is MUCH harder than it looks.  After chasing around after the ball for 10 minutes or so on crutches, my heart was thumping fast, and I was starting to sweat profusely in the muggy August morning sun.    With the sweat, I also started to lose my grip on the crutches which made it much harder to get around.  Even though I did once manage to put the ball in the old onion bag, I then decided to take it a bit easier to stay back in the defence for a bit, and was happy to sit out the last 10 minutes.

We had pizza and coke after the game, and I was offered to go down and meet and play with other members of the US team, who practice in New Jersey.  So we'll see how this develops.

In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to volunteer for New York City's first ironman event.  I was with members of a local tri-club, Asphalt Green, and my friends Nina and Rich, as we were positioned around mile 20 of the run, handing out bananas, water, ice, grapes, crisps, cookies, coke, gu's etc.  One thing a lot of them asked for: chicken broth.  I've always considered an ironman to be realistically beyond me, so it was amazing to see all the athletes come past, of all different shapes, sizes, and ages.  They were at the end of a tough course.  After a 2.4 mile swim in the Hudson, they had a hilly 112 bike ride in New Jersey, followed by a marathon, with afternoon temps in the low 80's.

After volunteering, I went to find Rachel and friends Miranda and Carol, to see the rest of the competitors come through Riverside park on the West side of Manhattan.  I missed my friend Melissa, but saw two blind athletes from Achilles, Jack Chen and Joe Bellantoni.    We finally left the course around 11.00 pm, and after a late meal on the UWS came home and crashed into bed.   Just another action packed day in NYC.