I would like to preface this by saying, I really enjoy playing hockey. That being said, scheduling three games on Sunday, and then following it up with another game on tuesday is borderline insane. Every part of my body is either sore, or bruised. A professional athlete I am not.

At first I was really happy with the idea of having the Sunday tournament. It allowed my parents to come and see me play. I'm sure to most that would seem like a nonevent, but lets face it, I didn't play many sports growing up, so it was nice to have something for them to actually come watch. It also meant that Lauren got to watch me play as well, which I thought was awesome.

As the date of the games approached, I started to realize just how insane of an idea this actually was. Just playing one game leaves me rather exhausted and sore. The thought of only having an hour or two between games to recover was not looking too promising. The possibility of dehydration was also a major concern going in.

Well when the day arrived, I spent most of the morning running around like crazy trying to make sure I had enough to eat, and had enough to water in my system to sustain the shock I was about to take. Of course during all of this I had to worry about Lauren and my parents, but thats another entry all together!

Once at the arena, the whole team was pretty much in agreement that it was going to be a long day. We got dressed, and did an extended warm up to try to get ready for the day. The nice part about having the first game slot is that you can warm up for much longer than any subsequent team. Once the first game got underway, it was pretty obvious that most of us were trying to walk the line between going all out and conserving.

Our first game was a hard fought contest between PCT. We were leading at one point, but had a slight second period melt down, and ended up losing. The only nice part about this game was that I didn't really hurt myself too much during it, and only took one major fall. Only two more to go!

After a nice lunch with the parents, it was onto game number two. This game went well for us as a team. Didn't go so well for me though. I went feet first into the boards a few times, which hurts like hell. The one time it was caused by being tripped, but thanks to an obviously biased ref, it was never called. We managed to win this game.

After the second game, we had an extended break until the final game. It was at this point that I was more than happy to call it a day. I was already exhausted, and starting to get sore. My knee was also starting to hurt quite a bit from the repeated slams into the boards. Obviously this would of been a great time to eat again, but I was thinking of everything but that I guess.

Back down to the arena for the final game. This game was rough. The team we played had a shorter break between games, which worked in their favor. My teammates and I had all cooled down and stiffened up over our long break, where as the other team was still lose and ready to go. It ended up being a complete disaster. At some points, it looked like I completely forgot how to skate. I would tell my feet to move one way, and they would just respond with a resounding NO. To top it all off, I got high sticked in the chin, which caused some nice pulled muscles in my neck when my head snapped backwards.

The next morning was hell to say the least. I had to get up and go to work, which I was not a fan of. When I woke up, my whole body ached, and all I could think was "need sleep". The whole day at work was a caffeinated blur. Somehow I actually got a lot of work done, not really sure how that happened! When I got home, I promptly made dinner, took some Advil, and went to bed at 6. Thirteen hours of sleep was well worth it, as Tuesday went much better.

Tuesdays story is to come tomorrow, as I am about all out of words for the day.

~
Kevin