Your shoulders feel heavy as lead. Your knees feel like they are about to
buckle under the weight of your body. Every inch of your skin is red-hot to
the touch. There has been a pounding inside your head for the last thirty
minutes. You cannot see the guy standing in front of you, so swollen are
your eyes. You are tired, bloody, bruised and miserable. But when you
bring yourself to throw one more jab and you feel the guy's nose breaking
under your fist, and the crowd goes mental as he hits the mat, you feel
all the pain was worth it.Or at least that is what I have been told.
Since I started boxing in Moyle Park, I have gone past my breaking point
many times. I have the endurance to do things I would not have dreamed
of two months ago. I can run for over an hour nonstop. I can do two
hundred sit-ups and almost one hundred push-ups. On one arm.And yet, just when I am starting to feel comfortable, Mr. Hegarty raises the
bar again. He is a great teacher. But when you see him smile nonchalantly,
not a drop of sweat off his face, while your lungs are about to explode after
half an hour of intense work out, you can get pretty annoyed. He is not
even tired, while you feel like lying down for a month.I should not complain. That is why I started boxing: to push my body as far
as it can go. When we get back after the Christmas break, we will finally
start sparring and I might get to feel somebody's nose crushing against
my knuckles.Until then, running around the pitch in the cold December evenings
will have to do.(Click here to read about boxing in Moyle Park.)
Click first button to ring the bell.
