Oh, holy mother of quad!

A time it was, and what a time it was...

Between a hyperactive social schedule, an ultimate frisbee tournament, and a difficult work week, my blogging suffered, as did my running schedule. I skipped 1 training run. In the words of a good friend, "This is how I express my displeasure: BOOOOOOOOOO!" That aside, it has been an amazing couple of weeks, and I feel entirely too charmed in the current state of my existence.

First, a recap from my ultimate frisbee tournament, Hanford Howl. It's a less competitive (but still fun) costume tournament that takes place over Halloween weekend every year in Richland, WA. Teams pick a theme and all the members of the team dress to that theme. Last year, my tournament team chose a German theme, went 7-0 in games, and won the tournament. Here we are in full costume!

(Photo courtesy of my teammate, Mama Flew)

This year, we were looking for a repeat championship. However, we chose not to recycle our German dirndls and leiderhosen, instead favoring a Hawaii theme. I didn't feel like donning a grass skirt for ulti, and i wanted to do something creative. From this thought process emerged the following:



As expected, our first day brought with it fun games, relaxed competition, and great costumes. We played a team that dressed as drinks, one dressed as Greek gods, a young team from Whitworth dressed as Scrabble, and (my personal favorite) Star Wars. Seriously! There was a player dressed as Jabba the Hut, and watching him run in that costume was quite possibly one of the most entertaining parts of that weekend. They were fun teams, but it was pretty nice to win all of our games that day because it gave us a first-round bye the next morning. Yes, friends, we got to sleep in and start immediately in quarterfinals. Sunday was a windy, windy day. While this destroys *my* ability to accurately throw a disc, it's not something that phases the much better players on my team, and allowed us to blow through quarterfinals against Olympia with only three points scored on us. Then came semifinals against another Seattle team. I knew a lot of the players on this team, and I *may* have been talking a little bit of friendly smack at the tournament party the night before. I was invested, and I was determined to live up to my promise of destroying the other team. During that game, I ran harder, faster, and more focused than in any other game that weekend. And I scored the first two points of the game! THis is huge in windy games, because upwind breaks really sets the team in an advantageous position, since it's so hard to throw into the wind. I had a few good D's, and scored another two points, and in doing so, contributed to the team's victory! We won! We were going to finals against Idaho/Big Sky Ultimate! Because it was late, and because we all had a long way to drive at the end of the game, both teams agreed to cut the game at 11 points. It was hard-fought, and it came with the price tag of a pulled quad (I don't think I'd ever pulled a quad before!), but we won. With no more than 2 female subs at a time, with low numbers all around, we emerged victorious. Ladies and gents, your 2010 Hanford Howl Champions:



...and as always happens when I play a tournament with the Rainmakers, I'm in love with ultimate again.

So...yeah. I walked away with a pulled quad. There was no bruising, so I wasn't concerned about a tear, but was shaken enough to postpone my 11 mile run (originally planned for Monday) until Tuesday. And boy, oh boy, did I ever feel it. It pulled just enough to remind me it was there all the way through my first five miles (which brought me from SLU along Mercer to the Seattle Center, by the fountains, by the Space Needle, through downtown, and up TO THE TOP of Capitol Hill and that hill...uff da!). These miles were additionally frustrating due to waaaaaay too many red lights. Start! Stop! Wait! Repeat! Blergh! Things improved significantly once I got to the top of the hill. Along with my quad FINALLY loosening up, I got a nice long descent which invigorated me and enabled me to continue running without much strain, fewer lights, and much less traffic. I ran down Madison, through the arboretum, along interlaken, then Lakeview to Denny and back to SLU to round out about 11 miles. Yahoo!

I skipped my midweek run (Kristen, you slacker!), but I had somehow managed to flood my social calendar and just lost time. Furthermore, I was (am) still nervous about my quad, and felt it necessary to baby it a little bit, which is extremely difficult now that my broken car has confined me to my bicycle for my around-town (read: escaping from Greenwood) transportation. AT this point, I feel it necessary to apologize for whining -- I just get a little bit scared with injury. My running buddies Zach and Zedd helped to motivate me into Friday's really rainy run on our normal Interlaken 5 mile route. We took a good, relaxed pace - I didn't feel too winded throughout it, which may have been a problem for Zach, as I was chattering through the entire run. It was a good confidence booster, and a lovely way to celebrate the official arrival of fall in Seattle. Yes, we ran through a deluge.

I could yammer on for way too long about all of this, and I still want to write about what occupies my mind during a run, or even publish the current iteration of my running playlist. Unfortunately, it is quite late, and tomorrow's 12 miles will most certainly require me to be well rested. 21 days left!

PS -- Thank you all for the encouragement, comments, advice, and support. Y'all have no idea how much it helps me, and I want you to know that you are, indeed, appreciated.