Rugby Once, Rugby Twice . . .

FINALLY . . . a weekend away from everything! Between training for upcoming races and volunteering all of our spare time as well as the never-ending daunting task of being the club's equipment managers, burnout was rapidly approaching. It was time for a much-needed weekend away from home, from running, and from life in general. And how fortunate for me that Joe keeps up with what's going on in the rugby scene and just happened to know that the CanAm Rugby Tournament was happening in Saranac Lake/Lake Placid this past weekend. So when I said to Joe "we need to go away for a weekend and do something non-running related" it was a huge treat to have the tournament happening that very same weekend that we wanted to get away.



So I worked on Thursday evening, got home after midnight, slept a few hours, and then we hit the road for the Adirondacks! The weather could not have been more perfect! It was sunny with clear blue skies and when we hit Saranac Lake on Friday afternoon it was actually a bit cool and I had to put a long sleeve shirt on! Awesome! We immediately caught a few matches of rugby - a contrast of the under 19 kids on one pitch and the over 50 guys on another. And it was really cool that the passion for the game was pretty much the same no matter what the ages of the players! These guys love their hard-hitting rugby and the people on the sidelines are equally as passionate about what is happening in the game. More sarcasm being tossed around than you can imagine!



We hotelled in Lake Placid and had a great time walking around the village on Friday night before enjoying a super italian feast outside. Again we had to pull on the long sleeves, but a nice fire out on the deck in combination with the cool temps made it so relaxing. And it seemed that no matter where we went we found someone to talk rugby with! These guys - current and past players - were all over the place.



Saturday's games were on some really beautiful fields in Lake Placid and we spent the entire day just going from match to match - there were about six pitches going with games, so if one game got a little boring we just turned to another one.






Joe gets to play touch judge















lineout
OK, back home and to reality and running. My secret life of rugby goes back into hiding and it's time to get it in gear and ready for the upcoming ultras. But I have to say . . . it was soooooooo good to get away and not have to think about anything except relaxing. We may have to do this more often . . .