Boxing Busy

The toes on my right foot were hurting.  I had spent a lot of time on my feet all day.  But I had promised to spar when I got to the gym, so I just dealt with the situation.

Initially, not many people were in the gym.  Rachel commented about the few people who were missing, but soon, the gym filled up again.  It was another light workout day for me, and I spent time working with Rachel, Octavio and Ken.  I also learned Justin and Hendy's names.

Rachel and I sparred later in the evening.  Ahead of us were John, Martin, Jesus, Justin, and Nick.  Martin took a hit to the ribs from Justin.  "I know I'm bruised," he said, holding his hand over where it hurt.  Martin also took a rough hit to the face from Justin as well.

Rachel didn't have a mouthpiece, and Alan and I suggested using a piece of paper towel to bite down on. She wasn't too keen on that.  Fortunately, John had an extra new mouthpiece for her to use.  Alan kept joking that I was going to throw hard punches.  "We will go light because you just started, and I'm old," I said.  We went for two rounds, and Rachel moved pretty well.  She moved too far over when slipping punches, but otherwise, she was fine.  Colonel stood on the apron giving her a lot of tips.

Geniece sparred with Justin, and it was a bit of a war.  Justin told Alan that he mostly trained himself to box.  I thought that Justin might have had some experience before, because he was holding his own during the earlier sparring sessions with the guys.  Geniece said that Justin gave her some rough punches, and she really had to be on her guard.

Near the end of the evening, I announced to everyone that Alan's birthday is on Saturday.  We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  "I'm gonna get you for this," Alan joked to me.  He told everybody, "I'm going to be sixty-three!"  Most of the room went, "Whoa!" "Damn, that's pretty good. . .at that age and still doing this," John said to Nick, who nodded his head in agreement.