Ping Pong and a Half-Marathon
By Felix 1 Comments
For the past two weeks we've had a ping pong tournament here at work during lunch.
And this past Tuesday, there I stood, in the finals, me and one lone competitor facing off in a match of guts, wits, and crazy small plastic balls spinning randomly on a green table top.
It was a best of three match, with games being played up to 21.
Game 1 - It was close up until 9-6, then I was able to pull away and seal the victory
21-11.
Game 2 - I knew not to take my competitor lightly even after that first game, and in this game
he got serious. He took the early lead 6-4, and then it was a battle till 15-15. I
capitalized on my top spin serve to edge ahead 18-17. If this series went to 3
games I thought I'd be in trouble, it was 19-19, I took a gamble on a huge backspin
return on his serve and it paid off. 20-19, I decided not to take it easy, catch him
off guard and attack early in the point. I returned to his back hand early off the
bounce on his serve, causing him to hit it a bit high, I then did a top spin forehand.
He returned, another, he returned. I knew if I went for too much I'd hit it out. So I let off on the third one. He was
expecting another top spin shot and hit the ball long. It was over. 21-19.
A bit over dramatic, maybe, but right before the match the organizer of the tournament announced
that the winner would get a $100 Best Buy gift card, the runner up $50. You can't buy a new video game
with $50. Cliche: Losing was not an option.
I've played ping pong for a while now, but this is the only time I've actually won any sort of monetary prize from it. Very cool.
On another note, while looking for a cool picture to put in this post I found this ridiculous looking paddle, I then proceeded to buy it. It will ship from the UK so it will probably be quite a wait, but still that thing looks crazy!
Also this weekend, the 29th to be precise, I will be running my second half-marathon. Not a full 26 point whatever miles, but 13. If it wasn't for my friend this summer, I wouldn't half trained nearly as much as I did. He had a personal goal of getting into a lot better shape this summer, and always proposed the activity of running. One thing is for sure, running with someone else is infinitely less tiring and boring than alone. Not to mention you have a lot more willpower to simply keep going. If it wasn't for him, I would be sitting at home most days thinking: "Should I run or play some more Unreal Tournament III...Unreal!"
I want to beat my last year's time by at least 5 minutes, which sounds kind of difficult but a recent run this past week kept me in good spirits since I was able to run at a faster pace longer than I thought. I won't post the time of last years race yet, but Monday I'll post both times if I beat it :) .
It's always fun to be in New York and I can't wait to go down tomorrow. It always seems like a massive mall to me, because whatever you need, you're probably never more than five blocks away from anyway. Luckily we got a hotel room that's 3 blocks to the east of the starting line, which is on the west side of Central Park near the center. That means an easy morning to get to the start, but it also means ending very far from the hotel since the finish line is at Battery Park about 6 miles south (West Side Highways is the home stretch).
It should be fun, too bad I can't rack up crazy submission points this weekend, but with the length of the queue, I don't really mind. I've pretty much stopped submitting until all my other stuff goes through.
Have a good weekend everyone and thanks for an awesome first week of Giant Bomb!