"Hall Pass" - The Official Ironmen Blog of Ryan Hall

What a terrible weekend... We were looking to come out of the previous weekend with two wins and a little space between us and the rest of the league, instead we dropped both games and are back in third place. To be perfectly honest, their hasn't been a game where I have felt we weren't the better team. There have been games though where other teams have executed the small details better than us which ultimately proved to be our demise. I think all we are missing is to just erase those small mental mistakes and I think you will see the Ironmen go on a long run.
I don't want to spend to much time on last weekends games (basically because it depresses me) but I would like to share with you our glorious travel schedule. I am not saying by any means this is the reason why we lost because it isn't. I'm sure other teams have similar travel schedules but this is what ours was like... Friday morning we woke up and had an early flight Milwaukee. We landed around noon and headed straight to the hotel. There was a few hours of downtime before meeting in the lobby to walk over to the arena (only a few blocks away) for practice. Let me just say that while the arena is only a few blocks away, when it's -6 out, those few blocks feel like a few miles. Anyway, after practice we were free to do whatever we wanted. The majority of the guys went out to dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant. Myself, Boney, and McNeley just walked down the local Applebees for a light meal. The rest of the night was spent relaxing and watching TV. So far so good right? Plenty of time to get the jet lag out of your legs and to start focusing on the game. Saturday morning approached and we had a light kick around at the stadium to break a sweat and get our legs moving. After practice we all grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel where I took my usual game day nap. Saturday night was the game vs. Milwaukee (which again we won't talk about, we'll just skip to after). So after the game everyone was rather upset as you can imagine but there was little time to sit and sulk. We immediately had to jump on a bus and drive to Chicago where we were staying the night. That's right, Chicago. We play Saturday night in Milwaukee and Sunday in Detroit yet we are staying Saturday night in Chicago. We got into our room around 12:30 am but had to be back down in the lobby at 5am to catch our flight out of O'Hare to Detroit. A short hour flight and we were in Detroit. Due to the fact that we were flying home following the game Sunday we opted not to get rooms and instead got one large business suite. So now picture that it's roughly 9am and there are 17 of us spread out all over the floor, some in chairs, and Ray Martinez some how got the lone couch. A nice nap on the floor will prepare anyone for an upcoming game or a weeks worth of chiropractic work. Immediately following the game we flew back to Newark and that concluded our weekend of horror.
Again, I'm not saying the travel was the reason for why we lost both games because it wasn't. I just wanted to show everyone that life on the road isn't as glamorous as it may seem sometimes. We now have two weeks before our next match which is plenty of time to work on those areas that need it most. We are in no way panicking and are still very much in the hunt for that championship. I hope everyone enjoys the Superbowl and although my beloved redskins are not playing I will be rooting for which ever team allows me to win our team pool.