Am I too old to play soccer?

It's Thursday and I am sore. I have blisters on my foot and my legs ache. This is all because I played soccer for the first time in 7 years three days ago.

That's correct. I was so excited to play soccer for the first time since I was but a wee lad at Neosho County Community College in Chanute, Kansas. The last time I laced up and put my shin guards on to play was in about April of 2001, when I was still a member of the college team. I was a pretty good player back then, especially at defense. However, not good enough to be more than a benchwarmer for the team.

The reason why I quit stone cold was because I simply got burnt out from playing. It was not fun for me to play soccer anymore. But a couple years later, I got the urge to play again. But by then I didn't know anybody else that played soccer. I always hung out with people who preferred basketball or football over soccer, I guess. So I never got the chance to play, and I never had the time nor money to join a club team.

Flash forward to a couple weeks ago. A co-worker said he was trying to get an indoor soccer team together and I quickly jumped on that opportunity. Indoor soccer was always fun for me despite it being more intense. Well, it worked out for once and our first game was Monday night. I even went out and spent $50 on a new pair of indoor soccer shoes.

It was brutal. The last time I played soccer I weighed 150 pounds. Now I'm over 180, and while most of the weight gain since then was muscle, it was obvious Monday night that I spend too much time lifting weights and not enough time running. I'm so out of shape it was embarrassing. In fact, I played goalie one quarter just so I could catch my breath.

So it's good that I am getting some intense cardio in again, but man am I paying for it.