There's a whole other world out there. They call it morning.

For much of the past three months, I've been waking up early twice a week to make some Ultimate. It's been tiring at times, but it's also been very rewarding. Playing and thinking Ultimate before work is confusing to my system, but freeing in many ways. It frees my evenings. It frees that part of my soul that likes to see the sun rise on a crisp fall morning. It frees my alarm from the snooze button. There have been a number of good practices and some not so good practices along the way. I may be biased by the passage of time, or the recent break in the action, but one of the best practices of all took place on Tuesday.

With only a slight chill in the air, we took to the track to run two miles. There were no moans, only a small group of Ultimate players willing, if not ready, to run. I started out too fast, but wound my way around to a time of 10:56. Fortunately the others ignored my efforts. They all run pretty well, some even much better than I expected. It was exhilarating to put down those miles before many went for coffee. Then, to add caramel flavoring to the day, we chased the disc around in a silly game of boot that brought out tired smiles. Running and disc chasing are great ways to start the day.