When I flew through the air, it was not with the greatest of ease.
But I did become the cautious, middle-aged man on the flying trapeze, thanks to an adult circus arts summer camp being held in Marine on St. Croix.
The program is being run by Sherri Mann, owner of Flying Colors Flying Trapeze, which Mann said has the only outdoor flying trapeze in the state.
Mann has been teaching kids in trapeze camps for about 11 years at her location near Big Marine Lake. But this summer she decided that people too old to run away to join the circus deserved a camp, too.
When I gave it a try, many of my fellow students were people who had some trapeze flying experience at facilities like Twin Cities Trapeze Center in St. Paul.
They were already familiar with tricks that have mysterious names like planches and straddle whips.
During our stretching warmups, some fellow campers were trying splits. I could barely touch my toes.
One of the campers was Katy Vandam, a 32-year-old swim coach from Minneapolis who started doing trapeze in March. She goes to Twin Cities Trapeze twice a week.