24 Hours

This weekend I played in the TFC annual 24 hour volleyball fundraiser tournament.  Now, let me guess, the first question you are thinking is: "Did you really play volleyball for 24 hours?" Answer: "No."

The tournament started at about 9:00 am (was supposed to be 8:30am, but there was some delays because the gym doors did not get unlocked at the proper time) on Saturday January 3, 2015. There were 22 teams, and generally speaking for the round robin, my team's schedule went something like this: play, ref, sit, play, play, ref, sit, sit, play, ref....etc. We played a total of 13 games in the round robin (which we finished around 2:30 am), and had a record of 9 wins, 4 losses. Because we had the best record of all 22 teams for round robin play, we got a bye for our first round of play-offs. This meant that after finishing out last round robin game at about 2:30 am, we had two games to sit, and then we had to wait for the hosts to complete the play-off draw, and then had the bye, so we didn't actually have to play our first play off game until about 5:00 am. This gave us a good couple hours to sleep/rest up. 

(From left to right: Jess, Mark & I, bundled up in blankets waiting for our next turn to play)
Thanks to Steve Dowler for taking the photo

Being stuck in a school/gym full of 4 games of volleyball going on at once, it was hard to get any real rest, but we did out best. Unfortunately after having such a long break and very little sleep, our play off performance was, shall I say, far less than impressive. We lost both our "double knock-out" play off games and ended up on our way home at about 7:45 am Sunday January 4, 2015. Overall, we were pretty happy with our performance, and honestly, by the very end of it we were just happy to get home to fresh showers, pyjamas, and beds.

I think this is the 5th year we've played in this tournament and over the years we have learned to become more and more prepared. We bring a cooler, snacks, water, Gatorade, an air mattress, blankets, pillows, multiple changes of clothes (it sucks sitting around in sweaty attire for that many hours). However, it still seems to be that every year, we always manage to realize we should have brought some other item. Hopefully soon enough we will have a complete list to help us survive this tournament.  

I love that this tournament always runs the first weekend of the January because it gives me a great start to the year. It's one of the rare times where I actually get to prove that I pretty much literally eat, sleep and breath volleyball! 

The Sunday when we finally wake up from what feels like a coma, we always question whether we should play in this tournament next year. We'll hum and haw about it while we nurse our achy bodies back to health, but when the time comes around we always end up signing up again. This year, Rex from TFC, will actually be putting on a second 24hr volleyball tournament in September. And yes, we are already planning on playing in that one!

That is all for now!

-Linds