The Agony of Defeat

Today, a beautiful almost-Spring day, I played in my first ever tennis match. If you recall, I started taking lessons last summer. I'm not good, but I was deemed  good enough to play on a 2.5 team. We've been doing team clinics for about 6 weeks, and let's just say that we're all beginners on our little team. Some perhaps even more beginner than me. I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, today was my first big doubles match. I had to miss clinic last week since I was sick, but I was able to play with my scheduled doubles partner for a little while Sunday afternoon. We had fun, and I was relieved to have been able to get in a little play time before the match today.

I started out the day at 5:30am with my usual Wednesday 6 mile run. As previously mentioned, I was sick last week. I have not worked out at all in 8 days. The run? It nearly killed me. In fact, around the end of mile 5, I declared that my friends were going to have to continue on without me. Since they are such great friends, they did not let me stop, and encouraged me to finish our last mile. Heather suggested I think of the Biggest Loser contestants who run a marathon at the end of their show, and that did help to make my legs feel a bit lighter. Still, I was beat.

 

Okay. Fast forward a few hours to 9:30. My partner and I fully expected a complete beating. Davis was at home sick, and Morgan was with him. I said I figured we'd lose in 2 straight sets and I'd be home at 10:30. Well, we were matched up better than anticipated. The first set took an hour, and we won 6-4. I think 80% of our games went to deuce. Second set. Another hour. We were tied at 6-6, and the other team beat us in a tie break game. That tied it up 1-1. We had to play a 10-point tie break game to settle the match, and we lost. A crushing defeat. Honestly, I could have lost 6-0, 6-0, and felt better than playing hard and well for 2.5 hours and then losing at the very end.

Still, it was great practice, and at least I've got the first match jitters out of the way.

Plus, my team outfit is super cute:



I would like this outfit in more colors, please. Thank you.