Spring is in the air

After four years of college, I started measuring time by the patterns of class – fall semester, winter break, spring semester, summer.

Now that I've graduated, however, things haven’t changed much. Thanks to rugby, my life follows nearly the same pattern: fall season, winter break (fitness), spring season, summer (sevens).

To be honest, there’s not a whole lot I like about winter. It’s cold, it’s dark, and – worst of all – there’s no rugby. Just going to the gym when it’s already dark, talking myself into layering sweats over underarmor to go running, and missing scrumming and tackling and contact.

But I can feel winter finally coming to an end. Not only did DC just have a week-long warm snap (it’s hard to hate global warming when you get seventy degree weather in February), but rugby is starting back up again!

Last week I started preseason practice with the Stingers to get ready to compete in the New Orleans Women’s Rugby Club’s Mardi Gras tournament. Though I’ve been working out and playing touch whenever I can, all the fitness and ball-handling in the world can’t compare to finally getting out on the pitch with some ruggers to do contact!

It would sound crazy to any non-rugger, but I LOVE my sore, rugby shoulders the day after a tackling and scrumming practice. I love it because I know it means I’m getting stronger and better, because it means I’ve been pushing people around with my body, and – best of all – because it means I’ll soon be out on a real pitch playing a real game.

Soon, rugby will start for real and it will finally be SPRING!!