Comments on: Friday Fun Thread

By: pyrator

pyrator — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 10:47:32 +0000

OK so I’m a triathlete, but it has been a sweet weekend where I did nothing but eat, drink, engage in sex with my girlfriend, watch tv and surf the net. You’ve got to enjoy life, right!! Get over it. Those embarrassments were years ago and you’ve better things to do ;-)
OK just one memory and then I’m done.
One year at school I thought I was in a good frame to win the school sports day X country race. Previously I had been up against older athletes and hadn’t stood a chance but now they had left school. Now I was one of the top dogs. At the start I was off like a race horse and after the first circuit of the field before heading out to the woods I was a clear 100 metres ahead of the rest. By 1 kilometre I was suffering, and then the rest of the field overhauled me. I was in agony as much in shame at my stupidity for setting off so fast as my exhaustion at trying to sprint instead of running.
I think I finished about 50th place, my worst performance ever. Everyone wondered what had happened to me as I had seemed certain to win. I have never ever won a race since then, but then I never start too fast either.

By: GDWrench

GDWrench — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 01:48:52 +0000

Many years ago my high school gym class was playing a football game. In a huddle, the quarterback designated me as a reciever on the next play. I was to get through the line, and immediately cut back towards the center for a short high pass. I did what he wanted, and we made eye contact. I jumped just as he threw a low bullet pass that nailed me squarely in the nads. I curled up around the ball and dropped like a sack of potatoes. The thunderous laughter from everyone else barely made it through the haze of pain. At least I managed to hold onto the ball.

By: rusty

rusty — Sun, 12 Jun 2005 12:48:05 +0000

Sixth grade track, we’re doing laps and I end up behind the fattest kid in class.I’m tall and skinny and wearing cowboy boots,clumping along like a giraffe w/a car stuck on each hoof.Whole class is waiting @ the finish line laughing while coach yells “If you do’nt beat him, you’ll drop and give me twenty!”. He got his twenty.

By: david tiley

david tiley — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 17:07:57 +0000

lalala – a gendered thing? For a moment I visualise the blogosphere spreading out through the darkness, humming with electrons, the men slumped and podgy, weeping quietly over this post, the women sweating lightly, thrillingly alive, hacky-sacking and typing at the same time.

By: Myca

Myca — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 06:57:01 +0000

Dude, Ted, was that Eric Ottens?

By: Billings

Billings — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 03:56:06 +0000

As a superlative athlete in all sports, I never once felt embarrassment. Sorry.

By: ProfWombat

ProfWombat — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 01:35:45 +0000

They chose up sides for punchball during recess. The athletic kids chose to be on the same side. The nerds were left over. When the dust settled, we’d lost by 215-3.

By: Philoillogica

Philoillogica — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 01:15:46 +0000

My athletic embarrassment story is long, so I’ve posted it on my own site. But it involves my head, a sports bra, and utter physical ineptitude.

It took me five years to go back to that gym.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 21:16:41 +0000

I kept clear of individual sports, but losing 30-0 at (field) hockey was pretty humiliating. I can’t admit much responsibility. I was appropriately placed at left wing, which made me a spectator in a game where our goalie was the only member of the team to get much play.

By: lalala

lalala — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:26:57 +0000

I wasn’t terrible…not fabulous at any sport, but not-embarrassing at quite a few. I kicked ass at recess kickball in grade school, then on to swimming, horseback riding, a little tennis. Field hockey was not my best sport, but again, not embarrassing. I wonder if this is a gendered thing among blog-types.

By: Kirk Spencer

Kirk Spencer — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 20:23:54 +0000

I’ve a mixed humiliation and pride one. 8th grade, for some reason I’ve joined the track team. (At that age I was gawky geek, not pudgy geek in frame, so I didn’t stand out THAT bad.) Coach was always short so he decided to keep me, and kept trying to find a place I could do SOMETHING. I ended up running the mile.

First meet with this as my venture, we take off, and I’m staring at the backs of everyone else. About my third lap I’m seeing the backs of some of those jerseys again – Yep, I am lapped.

I get stubborn, and for one lap I’m the only person on the track, doggedly trudging around that circle. I reach the finish line and get a standing ovation from the stands – which at the time I thought a sympathy ploy. (thus ends the humiliation point).

Turns out I finished ahead of a third of the field. That third, as passed, slipped off the track and quit. I earned that ovation after all as the absences did not go unnoticed. And the next meet and the rest for that season, which had many of the same people running, had two informal races ongoing from the same start—the first group, and my group which had a few others decide they could at least finish if I could. Nope, no SO that time.

By: Uncle Kvetch

Uncle Kvetch — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:35:52 +0000

I had one moment of triumph in a childhood of dropped flies and spastic throws, but I guess I’ll have to wait for another thread….

Heh…same here.

I’ve got a nagging suspicion that for an awful lot of CT’s readers & commenters, the humiliations were the rule, not the exception…

By: cleek

cleek — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 17:16:47 +0000

i played little league baseball one year. in the last game of the season, last inning, two outs, i hit a low fly ball directly to the right fielder – to lose the championship game. that was the last of my little league career.

one gym class in 9th grade, the coach had us run a lap around the track. i took off like a bullet and blew the rest of the class away. the coach, who was also the track coach, pulled me aside and told me i needed to join the track team. so i did. for the next few weeks, we did lots of long slow distance, many laps on the track, learned how to use starting blocks, ran a lot of 100m sprints and 800m runs to see where we’d fit in, etc..

then, the day of the first meet came. i was in the 400m. i got in my lane, waited for the gun, and took off running like a maniac – got ahead of everyone, cut to the inside, and won by many yards. nobody ever told me the 400m is run in-lanes. so, i was disqualified, and everybody had a good laugh.

By: JRoth

JRoth — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:45:05 +0000

I had one moment of triumph in a childhood of dropped flies and spastic throws, but I guess I’ll have to wait for another thread….

By: Jeremy Osner

Jeremy Osner — Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:44:25 +0000

(and “funny” is not the word…)