Huntington Beach Rugby Tournament

On November 10th, I was supposed to be running a leg of the SB Marathon relay with my company, but the Grunions also had a tournament in Huntington Beach, so I was double-booked.  RightScale had luckily just hired a runner though, so I ditched my relay spot with him and headed south for some rugby.

My trusty companions for this adventure

As a rookie player, I'm looking to get as much playing time as I can get in the pre-season just to learn the game and build the experience I'll need if and when I actually take the field in a real in-season game.  This tournament was a huge opportunity for me because our numbers were low - I would be needed every minute of all four games.  That meant a lot of running and hitting and so on, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

A rare sight: Pinto with ball-in-hand

All in all, I had a decent day.  I missed some tackles that I'd like to have back, but I made a few more.  I advanced the ball well when I had the opportunity and I had some fun running down kicks and generally trying to be a nuisance.

After the game we traveled to Balboa Island to visit the Carbones, some old friends from Softshare.  For the second weekend in a row, I had to make the drive back north on Saturday night in order to rest up for flight testing.  For the second week in a row, that'll be a story for another day. =)