Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Three-peat!

For vacation days two and three, I participated in a charity tennis tournament called Volleyfest. I have participated in the tournment for the last two years, the first year as a participant and last year as the chair of the event at one of the venues. The event raises funds for breast cancer prevention and awareness but instead of like a Susan G Komen event where the funds are used nationally, all of the funds raised stay in the immediate area, specifically Gwinnett County Medical system for the most part.

The format is fun and a little different, all the participants are assigned to a team for four people and then all the teams play each other over the course of two days. It truly is luck of the draw but someone I have managed to be on a winning team for the past two years.

This year, I had asked the coordinator if I could be placed on a team with my friend, Joan, thinking I had some pull with the head honcho. I showed up bright and early yesterday to find out I did not have any pull! I know, shocking... Joan and I ended up being on different teams. I really do not have much of a competitive drive so I don't do well with partners who take the game very seriously. Luckily, my partner for day one was very easy going and fun. I think we lost 2 and won 3 matches, not trampled but not killing the competition either.

Today before I went to the tournament, I started off with a 4.5 mile run at Lifetime and then did a 600 meter swim. I kind of like that workout now that I have proven to myself I won't drown :) My arms were oddly tired, I am guessing from the tennis the previous day. Instead of the freestyle lap swimming, I thought I would do 75m free 25 m stroke until I had swum 600m. Why I thought starting off with 25m of butterfly was a good idea I will never know. I guess it was too early to think clearly. Butterfly is rarely a good idea even if you haven't run 4.5 miles beforehand. After that one lap of butterfly, I decided to alternate freestyle with backstroke and breaststroke. I keep thinking for the triathlon I might end up doing more breastroke than I realize because of the open water and having to look up frequently to stay on course so I have been trying to mix some of that in to the swim workouts.


After leaving LTF, I headed over to the tournament. Today, we stayed on the same teams and switched partners. I was assigned the top (and most serious) player on our team. As part of her introduction to me this morning, she told me her team not only had made the city finals for ALTA (which is HUGE here) but had also been invited to play in the state championship both of which are this weekend. She is good. You get the point.

When my partner showed up she announced that she had trouble sleeping the night before and had taken a sleeping pill at 2:30 am. It was 8:45 so you can imagine she was a little groggy. As we started playing, I was a little intimidated because she was a much better player than me and I didn't want to screw up our chances at the big prize! She was so intense sometimes, I couldn't tell if she was just extremely focused or in serious need of caffeine. At one point, I asked her... the answer was both. :)

Somewhere in the middle of the second to last match it started raining so our day on the courts ended early. Tennis was followed by a luncheon and some speakers from the charity as well as the hospital. There were also two ladies who had personal stories of dealing with breast cancer which were very interesting. One of them had two sisters dealing with it and she had gone through the genetic testing to see if she carried the gene (she doesn't). The other was a survivor who had located a tiny lump one month after a mammography. Her doctors told her it was nothing and not to worry about it. She insisted on a biopsy and it turned out to be cancer. As a result, she went through two surgeries, radiation and four rounds of chemotherapy. I think she said she was a 6 month survivor at this point.

And then there were awards.... somehow my team managed to squeak by and win by ONE point! YAY THREEPEAT!

Tomorrow we are supposed to head out to Myrtle Beach. ahhhhhhh. At this point, it looks iffy. There is some question about whether my partner in crime can break away from work and the weather there was looking rainy for the next couple of days. We will give it another look tonight and make a final decision.

Side note... it occurs to me that doing three triathlons in the month of June might be a little on the oveachieving side of things, especially since I haven't officially even done one yet. (I really don't count the indoor one since I didn't have to conquer my ever growing fear of the outdoor bike leg of this event). I may end up backing out of the event at Callaway and focusing on the first triathlon in three weeks and then the Iron Girl. I'll keep you posted.

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