What a Triumphant Return!
It has been about three months since I last had a weekend that was filled with ultimate. And it has been about 3.5 months since I last did any regular kind of exercise. This weekend was the new beginning! I attended my second Huctoberfest, with a very different team, and it had a very different feel. About a week before the tournament, I found out that a good friend of mine had just moved to the Milwaukee area. Since I hadn't picked up with a team yet, I asked if he wanted to play and we could get on a mixed team together. He was down with it. I emailed the tournament director about five minutes after he agreed, and then heard back the following Monday (and that wait took almost all of my patience) that a team wanted us, hooray! The best news was that it was all experienced players and all out of college.
I drove up on Saturday morning after a very fun work party (the presidental debates had never been so fun). It was early, but I wanted to get my shoulder taped up, which I did, and watch the Valpo girls play a bit, which I also did and also played a few points with them. Once I decided that I had a good warm up, I met my team's captain, who was very cheerful and friendly, said hello to Ben (who was foolishly carrying a bunch of stuff and didn't drop it when he saw me running at him).
The team met, most of them knew each other, and it took me a ridiculously long amount of time to learn names, normally I am really great at this. Our first game was tough, the other team had a lot more subs than us, and also seemed more in shape, but we took it in the end, awesome, first win! We then had a ridiculously long break, which I talked with the VU girls, heard all the latest gossip, talked with a guy who had just spent the year in Germany as well (and didn't play with Mother Tongue, foolish of him!), ate and sat around some more.
Finally it was time for our second game. We came out strong, took the half 7-2, they then had a decent rally, but we were able to finish it 13-9 (maybe). The team is called Madtown Boozehounds, from Madison, and have a giant glass boot that is filled with beer, and that is always their post game call. I decided not to drink any, and apparently where I was in the circle would have led to my demise since I do not know how to drink from a boot properly, and would have ended up with beer spilt all over me, thank God I double tapped and didn't drink.
Last game of the day, another win, don't remember all that much it, maybe it was close, maybe not, we had fun. After all this, Ben and I ate at Jimmy John's, where he ran into someone he knew in college, which is always awesome, then just went back to his place, made cookies, watched a movie, then slept. He is currently living in a pretty sweet two bedroom apartment, I got my own room and bathroom, sweet!
Day 2: I wake up and my muscles are not happy with me. I find the energy to get everything together and pretty much stumble to the car. When we arrive at the fields, it is fairly dead, and our opponents showed up right before the game was supposed to start. We started with a 4 point run, they then went on a four point run, we took it to half, they rallied back, but we ended up with the win, awesome.
Game #5, they started off strong, got the first 2 points, we got nervous, and went on a 13 point run to win the game. It was quick and sweet.
The last game turned into the championship game, even though we were playing round robin. We both entered the game with 5 wins and no losses, this was for all the beer mugs! We went back and forth and traded points, and they took the half. It was our first time not leading at half time. They then got the next point, and thought they had it. We then came back, and it wasn't about getting all the scores, it was about getting the next one, and the next one. We found ourselves up to 12-10, on the endzone line, with a timeout called, set up, should have been an easy in, but the dump pass (a pass behind) got screwed up somehow, and it was a turn. They ended up getting that point, but we then did get the next point. And with that point, we won! Our prize was glass beer mugs with a sweet drawing of a stereotypical German lady on it, does it get better than that?
The sun peaked out, we had cake for Julie's birthday, yeah cake! Got some team pictures, and general merriment was had. The drive home was nice and relaxing, got to talk with Richard, he looked up my root and made sure I was going the right way (thank you!).
It is now Wednesday night, and I am still feeling the aches and pains of this. My calves were most angry with me, but now it seems to be a muscle that is pretty much on my hip. But the best part is that my shoulder stayed in the socket! And I wasn't terrible. It was really fun.
