The Noble Pursuit of Frisbee Golfing

My favourite place to run is the park. I'll take a good park, or even a bad park, to run in over a new stadium track or quiet suburban streets anyday. And definitely over any treadmill ever!

One of the greatest, most fundamental aspects of running is the freedom I feel while doing it and feeling the grass beneath my feet, the gravel in my shoes and smelling the musty pond water in my nostrils makes it feel all the more natural, freeing and exciting. Now there's not a whole lot of untamed wilderness where I live so parks have become one of my best friends.

I've seen a lot of things in the parks I have run in, some I would rather not have seen and some that make my legs pump faster (more on those things later). One of the most constant things I have seen while running in the park near my house (in which I have logged hundreds of kms) are frisbee golfers, or disc golfers.

Frisbee Golf is almost exactly like regular golf, only instead of a ball it's a frisbee, instead of a hole it's a metal poll and basket and instead of Tiger Woods, there's, um, well to be honest I don't think there's too many scandalous figures in the world of frisbee golfing.

The reason for the lack of Tiger Woods-like figures in frisbee golf is probably due to the fact that, to be honest, the sport isn't exactly the most popular. But to me it's just as noble as any other sport out there exactly for that reason. These frisbee golfers don't play for money or fame or girls, but simply for the love of the game and to hang out with their friends. And guess what, they look happier then a lot of the pro sports guys out there.

I always felt that there was an unspoken bond between frisbee golfers and me when I was running. Both activities are similar in that most people don't do it for attention, but to achieve their own goals and for the pure love of the game. Me and the Frisbee golfers had to climb the same hills, get soaked by the same rain, deal with the same wind and side step the same goose poop, but I have a feeling that all that never mattered to either of us because we were doing something we loved. We understood this and would nod and smile at each other every time we passed ways.

It's the same in life. We all have good days, the equivalent of a nice sunny day with no wind and 20 degree weather for runners and Frisbee golfers, but there's always going to be massively tiring hills, cold rain, fierce winds and, unfortunatley, goose poop throughout life too. And we won't even get put on Nike commercials or have over 100,000 fans on facebook for dealing with it. But I figure that as long as we do the things we love and surround ourselves with people we love, that love us and understand us, then at the end of the day we'll all be able to smile when we come to a hill, let the wind give you a push and have the rain refresh you while really enjoying those sunny days all the more.