Tennis in Atlanta...

You may or may not know but tennis is HUGE in Atlanta. That is not to say that you have to play tennis to be allowed to live here but let's just say it is a big deal for a lot of us. We have a little thing called ALTA (Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association) that easily has more players than USTA (United States Tennis Association) does in Atlanta. Some people play both ALTA and USTA but there are far more that play ALTA exclusively. ALTA has 80,000 members in the Atlanta area that play tennis. In fact, ALTA is so big that USTA adjusts our seasons of play to accomodate ALTA play. For example, most of the country plays USTA Women's tennis in Spring and Fall, we play USTA in summer and winter. (Enough acronyms for you?).

It is a year round sport here. No, we don't play indoors. We play outside. There are rules for the temperature. If it falls below 32 or above 95, you can reschedule the match but we usually just play it as scheduled. A few weeks back, we had to shovel ice and snow off the courts to play our matches. We are hardcore that way.



At any given time, I am on as many as three tennis teams as well as two singles leagues. You can see where throwing in a marathon or a triathlon can become a training and scheduling nightmare. I have run half marathons in the morning and played tennis in the afternoon. You make sacrifices to do the things you love I suppose. ALTA Mixed Doubles and USTA Ladies ended last week so we have a two week break before ALTA Ladies and USTA Mixed Doubles starts in mid-March.

As any self respecting player would, I spent my first tennis-free weekend playing tennis. Not really part of the plan as I had a 20-miler to work in but I just can't say no to free lessons. So glad I did as I got a lot out of the lessons on both Saturday and Sunday! That runner's high is a vicious thing. I made a quick pit stop after my 20 miler Sunday morning to take a shower and headed straight to a 90 minute group lesson. I am AMAZED at how good my legs felt. So strange but the weather was too good to not take advantage!

It is quickly becoming spring around here. Temperatures were close to 80 all weekend, the trees and flowers are blooming and my toenail that I lost after Chickamauga is coming back. Guess that groundhog was right :)