-18

i remember shot put.
i was my school’s best shot putter.
i liked sports i just wasn’t very good at most of them. i was quite a chunky teen (as opposed to the fat adult i am now), my growth spurt came early and was short lived but it meant for a period of time i was bigger than a lot of my peers.
over short distances i was very fast. over long distances i plodded. with ball in hand i was pretty darned good. with ball at feet i was a bull in a china shop. anything to do with hitting a ball with an implement of any kind – just forget it.
essentially that narrowed down my options to rugby and the throwing events in athletics.
i enjoyed shot putting. it was easy. glide across the circle, heave the put (in a pushing motion) out and just look on in amazement at how far it had gone.
yay me.
i was unbeaten at school. setting records every year.
yay me.
i won the district championship several times
yay me.
then i got to go to the county championships. the big time.
all my previous competitions had taken place on school fields or school athletic tracks with about ten bored spectators waiting around to see their ‘little johnny’ perform.
the county championships were taking place inside a real stadium.
win this and you go on to compete for a chance to throw for your country. no pressure then.
unlike previous events this wasn’t just turn up give your name to some bloke at a table and that was it. numbers had to be pinned on, forms had to be filled out, names called out over tannoy systems. this was the real deal.
there have been several times in my life when i have been a big fish in a small pond. this was one of them – the difference was this time i hadn’t known it. this time i thought i was the bee’s knees.
my event was called. i ambled over to the throwing circle. looked around and shat myself.
suddenly i was the smallest person there. these guys were monsters. arms bigger than my legs. where i was in just a vest, shorts and trainers these guys had weight-lifting belts and the right shoes to throw shot with. this was a whole new league.
if i did realise i was out of my depth then i soon did when i got to throw.
i got down, nestled the shot into my neck, breathing right, balance right, power off the standing leg, glide across the circle, hit the backboard, swivel, throw/push exhale and watch it sail out … to fall way below the mark of everyone else.
i wasn’t even close.
not even spitting distance.
i just needed to warm up i told myself (even though the rational part of my mind was telling me that they had already out thrown my personal best. hey hope springs eternal.
sadly this wasn’t to be one of disney’s uplifting sports movies where the underdog comes good.
the rest of them got better with each throw. i got worse.
i came last.
ah well i was the district champion. that would have to do.

(as a footnote – the key to living with being a big fish in a small pond is to know your place and the limitations it puts on you. if you don’t know that (as i didn’t) it does lead to a very rude awakening).