Dream Realized

This weekend I learned how to box. This is not entirely a product of my Rocky obsession. I have wanted to box ever since I read Jen Starkey's profile in Rugby magazine and learned about how she boxes for cross-training in the off season. I also have an unfulfilled yearning to punch someone in the face and be punched in the face before I die.

So, yesterday I went to the sporting goods store and bought myself these:
Bright pink, Everlast 12oz boxing gloves for which 5% of the proceeds went to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

My writer friend Paul bought me hand wraps as a gift and spent 2 hours teaching me footwork, basic punches, defense, and sparring stuff yesterday. It was so invigorating! Every time I wailed a jab/cross combination into the punching bag, I felt like a million dollars. As I started to get better at it, I was using my hips and my whole core and really punching from deep within my guts. Never, ever has anything felt so satisfying.

Not even breaking off the scrum and smacking a slow scrum half before she can pass the ball out. Not even driving 4 people off a defensive ruck on your own. If hitting the bag was so intense, I can't wait to see what happens when I progress to punching in the face.

Today my arms are terribly sore. My fingers are kind of shaky and the space between my shoulders aches a lot. But I know that in a few months I am going to have Madonna arms and have released a lot of pre-wedding, pre-manuscript deadline anxiety in a very healthy way. Maybe someday I'll go into the ring and actually fight somebody! (After the honeymoon, it could even be Corey)