Athletic Nerd - Oxymoron?

Today I'm gonna stray from the usual nerdy topics and talk about fitness. Who knew "nerdy" and "fitness" would ever come up in a sentence together, other than, "The nerdy guy looked like he'd never even heard of fitness."

I'm sure most of my readers (do I have any?) won't be surprised to learn that, as a child, I was not very athletic. I was the kid that hid in the basement playing video games when the sun came out. I was in sports as long as my parents could make me do them, but in highschool I wasn't on any teams. And I was happy. Chubby, but happy.

So now I'm 27 and I've finally realized that I CAN be both a nerd and into fitness. I've definitely taken my time easing into this. I started going for long walks/hikes around town over the last couple summers, always intending to turn it into running. It never really happened. Until now.

After so many years saying I needed to get back into the gym thing, I've finally joined up and started going. It's been difficult, I won't lie. The first few times, I'd wake up two days later and not be able to get out of bed. Just ridiculous. But it feels so good! I already see a lot of improvement in myself as well! And I've got a great little group of gym buddies helping me along. Friends are great motivators. Plus: I've started running. I'm nowhere near doing a marathon, but I've started, and I can only improve from here.

Now for the crazy. Three of my gym buddies are currently in Whistler awaiting their turn to compete in Tough Mudder with their team. When they first told me they were doing this, I thought they were nuts. It's this insane obstacle course thing designed by British armed forces or something. Look it up. Seriously. It's crazy.

Crazier? I wanna do it next year. I seriously want to do it. Anyone that knows me will think I've gone nuts saying that. I don't like to get dirty. I don't like to run and climb and get wet and all that. I'm a nerd. But I want to do it. I'm gonna have to start training hardcore, but I've got a year to get in shape for it. Seems like such a crazy idea, but I think it will be awesome.

So there you have it. Nerds can be athletes too. Who knew?