A Sense of Doubt blog post #3906 - After Over a Year Off, I Played in the Ultimate Palestine Tournament

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3906 - After Over a Year Off, I Played in the Ultimate Palestine Tournament

Until this tournament on October 18th, 2025, I last played Ultimate, in fact the last time I threw a disc was in late August of 2024, shortly before I left for Kalamazoo shortly before my Dad died.

I did not sign up or play in Spring or Summer league. I had not gone out to pick-up. I was concerned that my playing days were over.

When I saw the emails about this Ultimate Palestine tournament, I agonized for weeks about registering. On the plus side, it was a short hate tournament. Three games only. Mixed. And not starting at the crack of dawn, but like 11-ish.

Down side, I felt I was very out of shape, and of course, I am old (63).

On the plus side, I have been stretching daily and made my plantar fasciitis go away. I do tai chi multiple times a week. And I walk the dogs nearly daily. The regular walk is a bout a mile. The marina walk that we do once a week (at least) is 2-3 miles depending on the route.

That's put me in better shape than I thought, but it's not running, let alone sprinting.

But I am stretched out and more limber than I have been in years.

So, I decided to sign up. Warning messages about wait lists made me think I might not get to play anyway, especially as a male who is not registering with a matching woman.

But, optimistically, I decided to test my Ultimate abilities. The day after I registered, I decided to "simulate" some running like an Ultimate game.

My cleats, my favorite cleats, literally fell apart last year near the end of the season. I bought a new pair online but putting them on at the field, they felt very tight. So running in them would be a test to see if I need a new pair of cleats.

And it was cold and raining.

It was a week before the tournament.

I went out and ran. I cut. I sprinted. Only about 20 minutes, but I did all right.

LAST YEAR, in the first game out, I had CHEST PAINS and severe SHORTNESS OF BREATH.

None of that this time. I got winded but I was all right.

I intended to do that running a couple more times in the week before but between work and other things, I didn't get out again.

One of those things was THREE vaccines on the Wednesday before the Saturday tournament. Spent all day Thursday on the couch. Felt better Friday and determined to go play.

Also, watching the weather. I didn't really want to play in cold and wet weather but I would.

Fantastic day. Sunny. Warmish.

Ultimate people are by nature very cool.

Portland Ultimate people are about as cool as any I have ever known aside from my Kalamazoo/Goshen/South Bend homeys.

It was a great day. And I played well.

We played 5x5, so I had a lot of touches. I had only one throw away. Lots of good throws. I caught everything within my reach, which was most everything. And I played pretty good defense. I haven't been able to catch sprinters for years, but I mark well, and I can get in the way.

Great day.

Throwing and all the things about the game are in muscle memory.

It's like I had no time off at all.

Hoping to play another hat tournament soon or just make it out to pick up.

I am so proud of myself. Maybe my Ultimate career is not over yet.

Here's a bunch of photos and stuff.

Thanks for tuning in.

I made the Portland Ultimate tournament wrap-up!!

PHOTO DUMP

Team One, Team FUN

Team Fun Doing "FORE" for Team Four (after we beat them)

Me: That's such a cool photo -

Me, Marking on D:

Tournament Director Bridget Kaba choosing Raffle Prizes

Forget this dude's name but he's very tall:

Me marking on D again:

Teammate Anika from Amherst:

Teammate Lea (orange hat) (me in the background)

Teammate Em (on right):

Anika again, they are crazy good:

EM, again:

Me after a catch, I think this is the one I almost lost and had to hug close to me:

Another sweet pic of me throwing:

Me, preparing to throw:

Not a teammate but too cool of a pic not to include:

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2510.28 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3771 days ago & DAD = 425 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.