It's not whether you win or lose, but I'm going to describe it anyway
or Personal highlights in a team game
My psoas and related pains have been plaguing me for two weeks. As I headed for a full day of Ultimate, I wondered if this might be a day where the pain became crushing. Somehow, I ended up with the opposite. My psoas hardly bothered me at all. Ultimate seems to be the cause of my greatest pains and of the greatest healing. That sports as life metaphor thing was really kicking into overdrive.

The fields were a little muddy and wet and the grass was high, but it was better than the alternative- sleeping in. We only had two women, so they had a full day ahead of them without anyone to relieve them. My team jumped out early in a shortened game and rolled over the other team. I caught one on a slide and ended up hydro-planing through a puddle to great splash effect. Our second game was much tougher as it was against the perennial champs. We fought well through the first half, but couldn't keep pace in the second half. My highlight there was a strange one. I tapped a disc on D and then hit the body of the offensive player. He missed the disc and called a foul. Usually, I react strongly in those situations, but this time I stayed calm and tried to get him to explain to me if he still thought he could have caught the disc if I hadn't fouled him. I was trying to figure out whether I should contest the foul or not, when he suddenly decided to overturn the foul. I don't think I've ever been on that end of a call/non-call before. There were some lows in that game as well, as discs bounced off my hands and throws went errant.

We had a nice bye after that and I wondered how I could go on for the rest of the afternoon as my body was already aching. We jumped out early again in the third game and rolled to victory. There were some great individual performances throughout the day, especially from the women who were having to grit through. MB was having a usually solid day and Karpo was shining in a way I haven't seen for years. Everybody was contributing, even Young B's layouts were going for D's. I think the third game might have been the game where I threw a hammer for a score. That's got to be my highest percentage throw. Especially after what would come later. I had backhands going high and flicks being handblocked in the fourth game. The game was a good match up. They had some good speed, but we were matching it. We traded points for a while. I got handblocked twice, but evened things a bit with a handblock of my own. I layed out around one player about three times, but never came up with anything. The wind had picked up a bit and misreads became more prevalent. We ended up falling 11-9.

Things really started to get tough in the fifth game. We lost one woman to exhaustion and had to play down a person. I was fighting cramps and the need to vomit. I ended up cramping first as I laid out for a huck, missed, and slammed my head into the ground. Ouch. Down a person, we started trading points, but it wasn't enough. The final team decided to play 6 men and 1 woman against us. More people were cramping. We fought hard early, but exhaustion was catching up with everyone. I managed to get in for a few points and get another handblock. We couldn't find enough to stick with the team and lost. Still, we fought all the way through and had a really good day. S was amazing. She was still running at the same speed and getting open on the last points of the day. I said it earlier and I'll say it again. Everyone contributed. The new faces really shone and helped the cause yesterday. We worked the disc well and worked together well. I'm really proud to have taken part.

Today, I'm scratched, sore, sun-burnt, and it takes me 30 seconds to get out of a chair, but I feel pretty happy about the whole thing.