I'm still alive...

So swim season is over, as most of you know, but Ultimate season is just starting. The Summer League season ended with a loss in semifinals, but that's exactly when club season starts. Originally, our team was "The Recyclables," as most of the players on the team had been cut from higher level teams. Nonetheless, there is a huge amount of talent present. I don't understand how some of my teammates didn't make one of the elite co-ed or open teams.

We had a tournament last weekend, and frankly, I played like shit, and I, unfortunately, allowed my poor performance to get the best of me and I was not a happy person on the field or on the sideline. It was quite the lesson in having my priorities straight. I love playing pickup games, but in the week before the tournament, I played pickup on Wednesday. After laying out for a disc and landing on my hip, I had shooting pain down my leg for the rest of the week, which wasn't made any better by playing pickup again on Thursday and laying out on the same hip again. It was still quite sore on Saturday morning, and remained sore for the whole weekend. So note to self...don't play pickup before a tourney...or at least take it easy...although I know I'm not capable of taking it easy...so just no pickup before tourneys for me.

The Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing were amazing, and the competition hasn't disappointed so far. Watching swimming tonight, really, it took me back to four or five years ago, in the evening finals at High School Regionals. I was a member of Chapel Hill High's 4x100 freestyle relay, and we were seeded 5th going into finals. Bret, Lucas, and I think Keith were our other three legs. I swam one of the early legs, and Lucas, our All-American candidate, would be anchoring. We were right where we were seeded going into that anchor leg - 5th, a couple of body lengths behind first. My voice was totally shot by then, but I remember yelling my lungs out anyway, and Lucas busted out a 47.91 anchor leg, moving us all the way to 2nd, behind our conference rival, Jordan. If he had another 5 yards, he would have caught Jordan's relay. At the time, that was the most exciting race I had ever seen. Fast forward 11 months. Now a senior, I'm anchoring the 200 freestyle relay in a regular season meet at Riverside, who, while not necessarily a threat to win the state title, always has a strong 200 free relay. Behind by a body length entering my leg, I decided that we weren't going to lose that race, and I swam a 22.5 and caught their anchor. The first thing I saw when I popped up was my team yelling and cheering for me. A few weeks later, same situation, except it's a home meet. Same result. At the time, those were probably the best races I had seen.

But seriously...United States Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay. Enough said. Jason Lezak catching up by almost a body length on the last leg, and mah boy Cullen Jones is an Olympic Gold Medalist! Wolfpack in da house! It looked like silver was a foregone conclusion with about 30 meters left, then Lezak turned on the burners and caught (now former) world record holder Alain Bernard. Holy cow.