At least the train is always on track...

Things were definitely not running smoothly for Pio in the game against Burgos last Friday... Or in the game this weekend against Arxil. I have nothing to say about the Arxil game except that we lost and that it was very cold on the bench...(If you want to know more go here)  So I'd rather tell you about the previous week.

We left early on a rainy Friday morning for the road trip to Burgos. For the first time I was able to sleep for most of the 6 hour on the bus as we drove east, and before I knew it we pulled up to the hotel. The first thing I noticed about the city was that it was excellent for riding a bike as it was flat and had more than 1 km of bike lanes :-P The game was not until late in the evening so after our pre-game meal we had time for a much needed nap (yes, another one ;) ). Sleeping is a great time-killer! The only bad thing about naps is that I always have these crazy dreams that feel so real it's scary. Usually they are so weird and twisted that there is no way they could be real though...

Anyways, time to get on the bus! I had my music, my painkillers and my mind set on the game. At least trying as hard as I can to just focus on what I have to do on the court and not on the pressure to perform or the pain. Those that know me would be able to tell that I haven't been completely myself lately. Telling yourself not to think about something usually doesn't work very well. I have to admit that I had I had one big thought in the back of my head; after this game I was going to have to stop for a while to heal my plantar fasciitis. The bad thing is that this was my biggest motivation to get this game started :-P  For those that don't know, the pain can be excruciating! An advice: if you start getting it: stop doing whatever is aggravating the inflamed arch tendon because it will get to a point where it hurts ALL THE TIME. Hiding the pain with anti-inflammatory drugs might be worth it in the start, but not when you can't walk or stand because it hurts too much... I know I'm not the only one that is having or has had the same problem and I want to thank all my friends that have given me tips on how to treat plantar fasciitis :)

Looks like I'm trying to fly away... 

Let's get back on track to where I was, the game in Burgos; we did not get off to a good start :( giving up 5 offensive rebounds in a row is not how you win games... But we did end up with 4 more boards than them in the end. I'm sad to say the game was never really close, but a 20 deficit is not much in basketball and we had every possibility to battle back in the second half. We did battle, for a little bit, but Burgos took advantage of our zone which left them with wide open shots from the 3pt line too many times. Their 41% against our 17% made a huge difference. Coming out of our zone we did better and won the 3rd quarter by 5. 10 mins should be plenty of time as long as we get stops on defense I thought, but I felt like when we didn't succeed we fell apart (or derailed I should say). Final score 76-57... Not many happy faces after the last buzzer went off, but I did see one smiling lady in the stands behind our bench. Yes, my mom was at the game and it was comforting to get a hug and some Freia melkesjokolade after a game like that. "At least you made all your free-throws" was the first thing she said to me haha :)

Instead of climbing back on the bus and head back to Santiago I stayed with my mom who was in Spain until Monday for "educational purposes" (one day at the science museum in Burgos!) I had the weekend off and only had to be back in Santiago before Monday afternoon so we quickly planned to take the train to Barcelona the next morning! It wasn't just any train either, but a super-fast one (or two since we had to change on the way). Traveling at over 200 km per hour is fun! My mom of course had her camera and spent most of the trip snapping pics of the landscape, while I watched a movie and played some games in addition to a mandatory nap :) A few hours later we arrived at our destination: BARCELONA

To be continued...