i won't go on and on during this post. i promise. still, the event is blog worthy, in my opinion. and i guess that's the only opinion that counts when i'm the blogger, right?
this past Saturday my almost 46 year old husband decided to take his spot on a wrestling mat for an actual tournament~ the Western Open.
a spot on a real mat, facing real opposition that was at least half his age. Western University hosts this tournament annually, i believe, and apparently many times in the last five years Jeff has contemplated entering for "one last tournament". he hasn't mentioned it a lot to me, but inside the desire has been brewing. time and life and children have gotten in the way. their commitments and schedules haven't made it easy for Jeff to enter, until this year. in the past few weeks he's started throwing out the idea, the date of the tournament, the chance to re-visit a sport he's so passionate about, etc. he shared his desire and intent to give it one more try, just for fun. we discussed the pros and cons. i seemed to vacillate between "are you completely crazy??" to "why couldn't he do this?" he went in with a realistic view of the probable outcome and entered purely for the love of competition. he and a few others from Sarnia, one coach still competing in the tournament circuit as well as another that has been away from it for many years (although, not quite as many as Jeff, i might add :)) entered officially and we set off to London early Saturday. all the kids came. Jeff really thought it would be nice for them to see their dad compete, not just at weekly practice or in old photographs. i agreed.
we had lots of angles covered for both matches. at least three of us were recording or photographing Jeff's every move. all the while, i was trying not to throw-up. i was pretty nervous, and simply wanted him to get through without a cardiac crisis. Hudson was cheering loudly "Dad, do the reef over!!" it was nice to be there together. it was nice to see Jeff in his element. i was beyond proud of him.
the outcome? well, Jeff wrestled two matches, and lost both. the first one was 17-10~ and Jeff came out with a nice lead. it became an issue not of technique (which i think would have gone to Jeff had it been just technique~ because, you know, i'm pretty knowledgeable about the sport as a whole...ok, not true.) however, but conditioning. Jeff was running out of air, and the pure strength and adrenaline required to perform in a three minute round was draining. at one point his Sarnia sparring partner and coach for the match looked at me and asked where his water bottle was. i was thinking, "forget the water~ grab oxygen instead!" Jeff ran out of steam and lost the match after the first minute of the last round. still, he had fun. it didn't really look fun to me, but i could see that he enjoyed it....a former McMaster teammate watched on, as well as referees that know Jeff well from his early years. it's hard to know or even imagine what everyone was thinking, probably just as well that we don't. but these onlookers seemed genuinely impressed with Jeff's showing and display of courage. his weight class was stacked with some of the best in Canada~ and they had the abs to support their standings. i know i would have seen that bracket and hit the highway back to Sarnia.
these guys above were beasts. they took silver and bronze in the 13 man bracket, i believe...
as Adam's speech says, being "humbly confident and content" is a great way to live. Jeff was totally cool with losing, just legitimately happy to have experienced one last tournament. he says he can cross that off his bucket list now and i'm okay with that too. he modeled courage firsthand for his family~ unfazed by people's opinions of his age, or the raw talent and youth of his opponents. i was so thankful to accompany him that day. plus, someone had to carry the bottle of Aleve, so it's good that i went along...:)
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