I Should Have Biked to the Train

 

Yesterday, I took the train down to Hamilton to play in Battle Royale Six, an unsanctioned but incredibly well-structured pickleball tournament that my brother's buddy Craig organizes—teams of four, selected by captains, compete against each other for cash and medals—and then everyone goes to my brother's house for a Labor Day BBQ . . . and I was on my brother's team, and we played very well when we played together; we beat some of the best two-person teams—but we didn't do all that well when we were separated, although our team squeaked into the playoffs, and Marc and I beat our pairing, but our partners lost, so we had to play a "Dream Breaker" tiebreaker—you play four points and then swap out, and the other two players on your team play four points, and you play to 15 . . . we lost by a point and then lost the Bronze match 22-20—a guy nailed an ATP from a ball that bounced off the net, absurd—but I was happy that we were competitive, I haven't played against guys this good since June; all told we were on the courts from 10:30 AM to nearly 3:30 PM—I got over 20,000 steps, and I could barely walk by the end of it . . . and then we headed to my brother's house for food and cornhole . . . a few hours later, my mom drove me to the Hamilton Train Station, and I caught the 8:07 PM train to New Brunswick and I was planning on ubering the last mile home, instead of walking, but it was an 8 minute wait and the uber ride cost 13 bucks, so I figured I could walk it, but by the time I got up the hill (and to pass the time while I trudged along, I computed that I've made that walk from Highland Park to New Brunswick and back over 1000 times) my legs and knees were really giving out-- this was mainly due to an unforeseen factor, I was carrying a gym bag with all my pickleball equipment and clothing and water bottles and all that and the bag got HEAVIER and HEAVIER during my walk, until it was made of lead-- but luckily, when I was a little more than halfway home, a passing car slowed down-- they recognized that the person trudging along was barely able to move their legs-- and this turned out to our friend Colleen and she stopped and gave me a ride home and then I ate some raviolis-- I was hungry again-- and passed out (next time I will wait for an uber . . . or bike to the station: I saw a lot of people bringing bikes on the train, apparently you can do that on off-peak hours or the weekend-- that would be a great way to get home after a long day on your feet).