Carpool Goddess

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I’ve Been Called Many Things, Sporty Isn’t One Of Them

If you found yourself on this page, rest assured I haven’t gone all sporty on you and joined a team.

No, no, no. That would never happen.

I might break a nail.

Those of you dear readers who keep up with me, know that I’ve gone back to school. And I thought you might be interested to know that I’m taking a sports writing class.

Sports whaatt?

You heard right. A sports writing class.

If you’re curious here is where I will be posting pieces about – wait for it – sports related themes. (If sports aren’t your thing, don’t worry – these posts won’t be sent out to subscribers.)

As a girl who grew up rather klutzy (they knew me well in the ER) taking a sports writing class might seem a shocker.

But when I heard it was taught by the hugely popular, widely known sports writer and professor extraordinaire, Alan Abrahamson, I simply had to take it!

When I was growing up, I didn’t know girls played team sports – like soccer or basketball. I only knew of “soft” sports, like tennis and swimming and gymnastics. And running in heels, as they did on Charlie’s Angels.

Well, I can tell you firsthand that running in heels is a bad idea. I tried this several times.

All it takes is once to be unlucky.

It was the 1970s and espadrilles were the rage. Mine were navy with a wedge heel. My brother, sister and I were doing relay races in our front yard. Burning sugar fuel until our mom called us in for dinner.

Halfway into our third relay, where I was coming in second, my stylish shoe shifted one way, my ankle the other. The landing wasn’t the most graceful, and the screaming brought my mother running with her oven mitts still on.

i'm not sporty

It is true that I relished the attention my crutches and knee-length cast brought me.

And I spent hours letting friends and classmates draw and scribble on my leg canvass, which I lovingly perused when I should have been paying attention in class.

But I learned my lesson: it was the last time I tried running in heels. Charlie’s Angels be damned.

For the record, the last time I ran was in 1995, after an energetic toddler.

These days, I do most of my exercising in a pool. Tripping is almost impossible and you can’t feel yourself sweating.

My biggest worry is how to keep my manicure intact and my hair out of the water.

I consider this a win-win situation.

So I hope you’ll indulge me as I write about some sporty stuff and hope maybe you’ll even share some stories, successes and mishaps of your sporty-selves.

I’ll be keeping the bench warm.

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Filed Under: Blogging & Writing Tagged With: graduate school, sports, sports writing, sporty spice, USC, writing

Comments

  1. Sandra Sallin says

    January 23, 2017 at 10:02 pm

    Well, let’s see. I broke my ankle playing tennis. Never played again. I had a concussion skiing, Lived to tear my ACL also skiing. So two trips to the hospital for skiing made me give that sport up also. I am proud to say I had that accident on on of the hardest runs on the mountain. The lately I was simply walking down the street, tripped and smashed my face and arms. So now what sport should i take up?

    Reply
    • Carpool Goddess says

      January 25, 2017 at 4:19 pm

      Ok, you’re a little klutzy like me. Stick with lunch. You can’t get hurt with lunch 🙂

      Reply
  2. Gilly Maddison says

    January 24, 2017 at 12:24 am

    Ha ha – just the word ‘sporty’ makes me hide in a cupboard crying! Girls like me were despised by the sports teachers at school. Once, when I, along with three non-sporty friends bunked off a cross country run to detour (at a leisurely walking pace ) to a shop to buy chocolate bars, our suspicious teacher followed us on her little motorbike and we all got into trouble. And despite being yelled at to ‘use those long legs girl!’ To hurl myself over the high jump bar, I could only hurl myself AT it even at the lowest level! Nah, not sporty either for sure. Enjoy your course – I am sure writing about sport is MUCH better than taking part.

    Reply
  3. Andrea Bates says

    January 24, 2017 at 8:16 am

    Sports writing is so much fun! I did it in college. It was a really cool experience – you don’t have to be sporty to excel at it. Now I’m kind of intrigued and think I should do something that cool. 🙂

    Reply
    • Carpool Goddess says

      January 25, 2017 at 4:20 pm

      Thanks, Andrea! I’m not sure what I’ve gotten myself into 🙂

      Reply
  4. Shari E says

    January 24, 2017 at 9:28 am

    Sounds fun! Maybe it will inspire you to give sports more of a chance — just not in heels of course! LOL!

    Reply
  5. Beth says

    January 24, 2017 at 12:28 pm

    I once sprained my ankle standing still and falling off my high heels. But I’m all about school and writing. it sounds so great I’m jealous.

    Reply
  6. Kristin says

    January 25, 2017 at 5:15 am

    I look forward to hearing how you like the writing class. Your blog is a lot of fun to read.

    Reply

Trackbacks

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