day44-of-50-blog-posts

Day 44, Are you an exerciser? What physical achievement are you most proud of? Ever play any sports?

I love riding my bike, and I love running. Basically, if it's cardio I'm here

for it.

No crazy physical achievements. Oh, this one time when I was a teen and began

running a few miles I found this groove that was oddly perfect. Like something

more than a jog but not a full-out run, a place that I found I could just keep

going. It felt like a weird synchronicity with the world. Probably it was just

runner's high, but I ran for a long time that day and felt zero impact from the

effort, and I had run for a few hours.

Sports? Not really. I was a part of a swim team, bowling team and did archery for

a time. Each sport had its own things I really enjoyed.

With the swim team, it was the coaches who took it super serious. While I just

loved watching clouds while doing the backstroke. Had one coach who tried to

model me for their butterfly goto, which gave me some gnarly shoulder cracking

these days, but I did appreciate the faith they had that I could execute on

their direction.

For bowling, I really love the sound of the pins spinning and crashing when you

hit the pocket just right, with the proper amount of spin and force. A strike

that looks like a beehive imploding in on itself is, in its own way, a meditative

moment.

Then, archery was really fun. My grandad had left my dad and I a compound bow that

got my dad fired up to try the sport. Then once I had my own bow, it was something

which became part nature walk and part target practice. We would do these Sunday

archery events in San Diego, which took us walking through the bush in Balboa

Park. Honestly, some really great memories just crushing a 3D target range on an

early Sunday. Then, right as the last shot is lined up, the sound of bagpipes

rips across the early morning and tanks my shot.

So so so good.

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updated: 3 December 2025.