Well, I wouldn't blog the time that Leonard and I played this crappy course in Minneapolis (I forget the name, but there was a note in the PDGA directory (remember that? who still uses it?) stating "get a 3 on 4, get a high 5," thus implying that hole 4 was somehow hard to get a 3 on. Well, we had never played it before. It was a real easy course, kind of back and forth in a field, almost all the holes being like 150' or something. We both had drop-in 3s on hole 4. I do not remember if we gave each other a high five. I believe we did. We didn't play the course again, however. We didn't blog it (never mind that this blog did not exist then), though I suppose I'm blogging it now. But one should blog an ace. Beau, you should totally have blogged that ace from a year or two ago. All I have is your sly email about it somewhere in my machine's memory.
Anyhow, so I had a nice little ace a week ago. I figured out that I can play 18 holes on the course close to my house (Groves) with Athena in the running stroller without fuss. I have to play the short tees, though, since the long tees are a bit of an offroad haul. Actually I will probably try them next week to see if she'll squawk about it or not. She likes it quite a bit (it's basically a literal walk in the park for her) as long as there's not a lot of waiting around. So I've been playing a few times a week. The short tees aren't particularly hard, but there are some interesting holes with trees and lots of OB. Most of them are midrange shots of various sorts. I just throw four discs in the stroller (ESP Buzz, that new OS Buzz that I think I got from Mark or Rob, my Challenger, and a star Destroyer for forehands and hammers) and can get a round in. Usually I can shoot maybe -5 or -6 without too much trouble. A better round, like yesterday, I shot -11. My record is -15. Though of course you should be able to deuce all of them, in actuality it's pretty hard to do (a few are difficult deuces). This particular round was unimpressive. Kind of playing like a dick actually, an inconsistent dick.
But the ace redeems it, of course. Hole 14, about 250', OB on the right and past the basket. Not a super difficult hole, but a healthy headwind: threw the ESP Buzz with a good bit of snap and hyzer and it elevates and floats right into the basket: boooooom. Sweet. In front of two groups, too, so plenty o witnesses, not that an ace needs one, but it doesn't hurt to have a little gallery happening.
That buzz is a good disc. It's one from a twin cities winter tourney some years back. I've been throwing it for a while. Getting a little beat up so it's been awesome having that Buzz OS too, which is really freaking overstable. Anyhow, Athena was not impressed, though she was excited by some dogs in a yard. She will learn the power of an ace eventually I guess.
Weirdly, I hit the basket again yesterday, playing again, this time with the Buzz OS on a forehand (trying to work on my forehand a bit since it's not super challenging playing this course backhand), but it chained out. It's been good to get out more, since the weather here is great. I'll be playing a couple rounds a week this winter it looks like, so if you want to come down and get your game on, lemme know.
Also, mostly unrelated, for the runners among us, I attach a photo from the turkey trot 5k that I ran on Thanksgiving, also with Athena. I run it every year in my tiger suit (on account of why not: well, Sean would have something to say about the unseriousness of running it in a suit of any sort, since that takes away from the respect one should pay to the run etc., but you know: 5k turkey trot...), but this year I wanted to push her (also in a tiger suit), clutching a stuffed tiger. There was a small plastic tiger toy I attached to the stuffed tiger, you know, for recursive amusement, but it fell out somewhere along the line. Anyhow, it's a "european-style" 5k, so it's cross-country, and features two water pits and some hay bales you're supposed to jump. So I figured I'd just push her in the running stroller. Last year they had an area you could bail out to if you didn't want to jump em. Turns out this year they did not. No one else was pushing a stroller for this run, and that is (one of the reasons) why. It's a loop course you double up on, and so the first time we hit the mud pits it turns out there's no way around them. So we go through them and over the hay bales. We lose a wheel in the second mud pit and there's a huge OOOOOOOOOOOOO from the crowd (upside of running in the tiger suit is that everyone is cheering for you). Megan is watching this occur and is not pleased. Athena's having an awesome time, of course. I just slap the wheel back on and keep going.
I pass a whole bunch of people on the second loop (I started at the very back because it's kind of a dick move running with the stroller: don't want to clip people etc.), and the second time around we don't lose the wheel. We're flying past the chumps. (Well, as fast as you can fly in a tiger suit pushing a stroller.) But people are freaking out, chanting TIGER, TIGER, TIGER as we close in on the finish. I've been beating this twelve year old kid for the last half mile, but he finally pulls away at the end and I don't chase him down since you know, twelve year old kid: don't want to get beat by the tigers. Anyhow, awesome run. Pretty hot in the suit. It was 75 by the time we were done, and 75 is hot in a tiger suit I will tell you. Daughter loved it. Ran it in 26 minutes. Not too bad. Eventually I'll actually get serious about trying to run this FAST. Maybe next year. Maybe not... In the meantime, we be discing... and I will hope to see y'all soon on the course.
