Christophersoned!

I used to be pretty good at ultimate (frisbee), playing 5 years for WWU. I wasn't the best player on my team, but we had a darn good team; in 2006 we were ranked 12th in the nation, and that among Division I schools. It was fun to be good.

A few of my closer friends dabbled in the ultimate world for a year or two, and got pretty good also. Still, I played for 5, and it was fun to play a sport with all my friends where I knew I was the best player on the field.

All that changed yesterday. I went out to play a little bit of pickup, and was utterly destroyed on numerous occasions by my friend Mark. This was not a situation where he got the best of me on one or two plays; I'm talking about the entire game. I won't go into the details, because that would be boring for anyone not familiar with the game. It also should not have come as a surprise, Mark has been playing ultimate as of late, and I have been out riding my bike. But regardless the reasons, I had to come to grips with a good friend of mine surpassing me in a sport that had been "my thing" for so long.

I read an article by Mike McQuaide in AdventuresNW on the topic of competition (if you're interested, the magazine is free on stands around downtown). It basically spoke to the notion that competition is about you and your friends pushing each other to do better, not about being a testosterone-overloaded jerk.

I'm glad that I have friends with whom I can compete, however informally, and remain just as good of friends with after facing off on the field/track/whatever.