It is hard to believe that it had been four years since I fenced competitively, and nearly that long since I last hit someone with a three foot piece of metal. Fencing in one of those things that never seems to leave me entirely though and it is not uncommon for me to be thinking about ways to collapse distance while staring out the bus window during my morning commute.

At the beginning of April, after my spring soccer team got the plug pulled on it (not enough orphans), I found myself ...