MARS (Pittsburgh) 2005

To celebrate our country's birth, Nelly and I went to Mars this weekend. It's an ultimate tournament in Pittsburgh. Oddly enough, even though it's in Pittsburgh, it's rather well attended by a wide cross-section of people. We picked up with some ultimate friends from around the area.

The drive out there was horrendous. Someone please remind me that Route 80 is not a good way to get out to Pittsburgh. It looks good on a map, but it's a tangle of construction and delays. If you're going from northern new jersey, take 287 to 78 to 81 to the Penn Tpk. It's so much better.

Things other than ultimate went on. Two nights of partying. One of the women on our team had relatives in the Pittsburgh area, so we were able to crash at their place. And use their pool! which was very refreshing and invigorating.

The team we played on was pretty strong. We struggled early, each of us learning the other team members styles on the fly. But by Sunday we'd pretty much gotten the hang of it. And after the end of the day we were ranked 10th out of 30 teams.

We lost a couple players between Sunday and Monday (the final day of the tournament). So of course, when Monday rolled around it was the hottest of the three days. We started ranked 2nd in the B-Pool. By the second game we were completely fried and our opponents (Tea and Strumpetts) had six extra subs. Not to make excuses. We gave them a good run, taking the lead at half, and then pushing them all the way, losing 15-13.

So while we didn't win the B-Pool, we did do pretty well. I was happy with my team and my own performance. And I had a great time.

Go me...