Corporate Challenge Update

Okay, so I've been busy practicing and competing in Corporate Challenge events, plus some work craziness, so I'm long overdue for another update. Pool: I had practiced quite a bit and felt very ready to compete the day of the event. My first game was scheduled to start at 6:00pm at a billiards room up north, so I had planned on leaving work between 4 and 4:30 to give myself plenty of time for rush hour traffic and to find the place. However, around 3:00pm a small issue popped up at work. I started working on it and by 4, I knew I wasn't going to be able to get away. My coworker who was representing the men for our company was able to get in touch with one of the other ladies who had signed up so at least the women didn't forfeit. I ended up staying at work until 10:30pm that day. Bowling: With this, I didn't feel as ready as I could have been since I'd only practiced occasionally before the competition. However, I tend to bowl better when I don't try as hard, so I kept a "This is for fun" attitude. It worked. I bowled above my personal average with a series of 139, 141, and 154. Unfortunately, the other 3 people on my coed team bowled about the same when we were up against some bowlers going into the 200s. We ended up 5th out of 19 teams that participated so it wasn't too bad. Also, out of a total 98 women, I placed 17th individually. Not too shabby. Soccer: This was the event I was most looking forward to. There were 4 women who showed up to play 3-on-3 soccer, and I was the only one who had practiced lately. We were fortunate in that our HR coordinator managed to convince one of the guy players to be our coach, so at least we had some direction. Needless to say, we floundered during our first game but with the help of the coaching, we had a working strategy by the end of it. Despite that loss, we approached our second game with determination and so my only scoring goal gave us a win. We still had a third game scheduled for the first night, and even with a 20 minute rest we were getting tired. Furthermore, we had the luck of the draw to come up against some girls who had obviously been kicking around soccer balls ever since they could walk. We were seriously out-played, but still managed to score one goal ourselves, so we didn't feel completely defeated. I had a lot of fun and hope I get to play again every year! Racquetball: This is basically the only thing I have left. I had planned on dropping out since I discovered I have no easy place to practice in Kansas City, however the only other lady to sign up has already bowed out because of a schedule conflict. This means I have a little over a week to try and prepare. I'm hoping my "This is for fun" attitude will pay off again, because there is no way I'll be ready for serious competition in such a short time. As long as I can score a few points, maybe even win a game, I'll know that I did my best.