wizard

My brand spanking new racquet was in hand. Croakies around my head holding my glasses in place. And with a racquetball glove on my right hand, I was ready to play.

Last night was racquetball night with my buddies. We usually go on Thursdays for a little exercise and fun. The last time we played I broke my racquet trying to hit a ball that was a little too close to the wall. Bummer, I really liked that racquet. My new graphite racquet seemed pretty sweet so I was ready to break it in and break a sweat.

As soon as the first game was over I felt a horrible pain in my feet. It felt like the muscle on the top of my foot was cramping up on me. I pointed my toe to the ground behind me and slowly stretched it out. It hurt so bad I thought I was going to throw up.

It ran up my leg just below my shin and hurt terribly. Before we start playing I always stretch out but this was weird. Not a pulling as much as a cramping and for the life of me I could not get it to stop. I sat down on the floor and kept trying to stretch it out. Just thinking about it now hurts.

I feel like I should say that I have a pretty high threshold for pain so I am not one of those guys who cries when something hurts. I am also not a kickboxer so pain is not my thing either. But, remember this was on both of my feet so I was miserable. Cramping muscles hurt bad.

"Dude, I am done. I'm sorry we only played one but I can't walk and I think I am going to be sick."

"Are you low?" My diabeties conscious friend asked.

"No, like sick to my stomach. That is how bad it hurts." We paid for an hour and I was done after the first game! I felt terrible for quitting so soon but I saw no way to keep going.

Just then my cell phone rang. I slowly stepped out of the court and answered the call while my buddy continued to practice. After a 5 minute conversation I walked back in and felt fine.

"Let's go dude."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, let get in as much as we can."

And we played until our time was up.

Does anyone know what I can do, besides stop playing, to avoid this in the future? Has this happened to you?