And a Win!

Also known as Summer League Game 3

Yes, that's right, we won last night.  It was something like 15-9, too.  We were ahead the entire game, although they did score a couple of points in a row when we reached 13 to make the game last longer than it should have.  And that first point after 13 lasted a long time.  Like at least 10 minutes.  There were so many turns.  I'm glad I wasn't on the field for that one.

We had 9 guys show up this week again, but they only had 8, which certainly helped us out a lot.  We also had two guys who hadn't been able to make it so far, which was nice.  But I do think that extra guy made a lot of the difference.

On a personal note, I had a mixed bag.  I caught two discs and I dropped two discs.  There was also one that was thrown to me where the disc sailed over the head, but fortunately a team mate was there to catch it.  One of those drops was low and to my side.  It did bounce off my hand, but it was a very awkward throw for me to catch.  The other one was most definitely my fault.  I committed the classic mistake of looking for where I was going to throw the disc before I caught it.  Just before I dropped it, I realized what I was doing, too, but there was no time to watch the disc until I caught it.  Fortunately, we got a turn and I was able to successfully catch the disc and pass it on later in that very point.

Irvine Lake Mud Run 2019

Or the mud run that wasn’t.

The Irvine Lake Mud Run holds a special place in my heart.  It was the first mud run I did back in April of 2010.  While I haven’t done it every year, I’ve done it at least 10 times because I did it multiple times some years, and I think I only missed one year.  The last couple of years, they’ve only done it once, and the numbers have been dropping, so I was afraid the day would come when they would discontinue it.

Never the less, when they announced the mud run for this year, I signed up at the cheapest discounted rate – back in July of last year.  That race was supposed to take place this last Saturday.  I was still getting promo e-mails like I usually do from them; in fact, I got one over Memorial Day weekend.

So you can imagine my shock when I got an e-mail two weeks ago, a week and a half before the event, saying they weren’t going to be able to put on the mud run this year and it was postponed until March of 2020.  That’s right, another 9 months away.  My registration was good for the new date or I could have my registration switched to someone else.

Naturally, I wasn’t happy about that since I had been planning some other things for that day since I would be down in Orange County any way.  However, I’ve managed to work things out so I can do those activities on other days, and I was able to get together with some friends on Saturday I would have had to pass on otherwise.

But what really makes me mad is that I am going to have to fight them for a refund.  The weekend they have rescheduled for I have other plans for already, so I can’t do this run.  They didn’t offer a refund, so I am going to have to fight them for it, and I will.  It’s not a lot of money, but it is the principle.

What makes me even sadder is I bet this is the end of this particular mud run.  No one is very happy with them right now, and I doubt others are going to sign up after this stunt.  It was truly a very fun event, and I’m sad that last year was my last time doing this run.  Even if they do come back from this, it is going to be hard to trust them and sign up again.

Summer League Game 2

We had our second summer league ultimate Frisbee game Wednesday night.  It was the same result, only better.  What do I mean?  We lost, but we lost 13-15, which is just over double our score from last week.  We had 9 guys show up instead of the 8 we had last week, too.

The one thing that is frustrating is that we were up almost the entire game.  We took half at 8-6.  Then they came back and tied it up.  We aren’t completely sure what the score was at that point, but it was either 13’s or 12’s.  We went with 12’s.  As you can see, they score 3 points to our 1 after that.

I’m sure the fact that they had more subs helped them.  Especially since it meant I was out there on D.  I hope we get a few more subs so I can play more offense than defense.

However, I’m not complaining about getting more playing time.  I’m getting more than I’m used to, and I’m definitely not complaining about that.

I didn’t have any drops or throwaways last night, although one throw was close.  There was one disc thrown to me that fell short.  I could have run to it, but I thought it was going to make it to me, and then I lost it in the lights.  By the time I saw it was going to be short, I couldn’t get there.  If I’d been running harder toward it, I might have been able to get there, so that is frustrating.

We’ve been playing at the fields where Summer League was played for years.  (Don’t remember if I mentioned this last week.)  It was nice to be there for a nostalgia point of view.  And it is really nice to be there since it is a shorter drive than where the majority of our games are these days.  However, the gophers have taken over the field.  It’s why we stopped playing there.  We won’t be there anymore this summer, and I won’t miss the gophers at all.

Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2019

10

I have now done the Camp Pendleton Mud Run 10 times.  I really find that hard to believe.  It doesn’t seem possible that it has been 10 years since I started doing mud runs.  But the number of mud run related shirts in my closet certainly don’t lie.

I had hoped to get some friends to join me this year, but that didn’t come together, so once again it was just me.  My parents were almost in the area, but their plans changed again as well.  So it was just me driving down and back and doing the mud run.  Not that I’m completely upset because I got over half of an audio book listened to, finishing it up just before I got home.

As usual, I spent Friday night in the area.  Hopefully the Motel 6 I was at this year gets their hot water fixed soon since it stank, but other than that, my night was fine.  I certainly slept well.  My chair at work isn’t comfortable, bugging my legs by the end of the day and usually by the end of the week, but again that didn’t prove to be an issue.  While they were bugging me Friday night, I woke up feeling great and ready to run Saturday morning.

I got on base with plenty of time, which is always nice.  I was possibly earlier than in years past since I got to park on pavement instead of in the weeds like the last couple of years.  Got through registration very quickly as well.  Wandered around a bit killing of time, and then it was time to run.

They had changed the location of a few of the obstacles this year, but there were no major surprises.  Not that I’m complaining.  I had a huge grin on my face from the moment I got on base until well into the run.  I’m surprised my face wasn’t hurting from smiling so much.

There was so water in the creek we run through in the first half.  A little bit of water to slosh through in the reservoir, but nothing like there was the first two years.  Lots of plants along the sides of the course.  It was beautiful as always.

And warm.  It has been cold down here, so I was worried I’d be doing it in the cold.  Wouldn’t be the first time, but I prefer it warm.  The sun came out before my wave started and stayed out.  It was definitely warm while running, but it was perfectly pleasant when I was done.

While I may not have been running with a friend, I made a friend along the way.  A woman was using me as the person to try to stick with, and we chatted some as we crossed back and forth, which was fun.

Afterwards, I made my now traditional stop at the Pit Stop Diner, which I always enjoy, to refuel before heading back home.  Along the way, I stopped at Downtown Disney, first time in about a year, and bought some pins and shirts.  Like I need more shirts.

As usual, it was a very long day, but a very fun day.  I need to sign up again for next year.  Can’t wait!

Summer League Week 1

The first week of June is over, and that means the first week of summer league is over.  I had my first game on Monday, so I got to start out the week playing.

This year, we are back to two leagues, and, unfortunately, I am in Men’s.  I know a couple of people on my team, at least from the group that was there this week.

About half of our team missed.  We only had 8.  Since 7 are on the field at a time, as you can see we had an issue with subs.  I got more playing time than I figured I would.

We were also back at Balboa.  This is where I played league games for years until the gophers became an issue.  They are still there, although we managed to avoid any injuries on our field.  There was one on the other field, sadly.  Hopefully, this is a temporary location and we will be back on good fields after next week.

And we lost.  Given our numbers, versus a fill team with almost a full line of subs, it wasn’t surprising.  Plus, they had quite a few guys who play together regularly, including guys from my Spring League team.  Still, we got to 6 points before they scored 15.  Considering they scored the first four in a row, that made me happy.  Heck, we stuck with them in the first half after those first few points since it was 4-8 at half.

Hopefully, when the rest of our team comes back we will be able to hold our own in a game.  We’ll find out on Wednesday.