Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Long Game

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They played ultimate disc for 74 hours and 56 minutes, one minute more than a group at Purdue University in Indiana.

"As soon as we beat the record, my body was done," said Steve Jaworski, who flew in from California to get in the game, which started Friday morning at 7.

But he and the 29 other players willed themselves to keep going until 3 p.m., hitting 80 hours. They didn't want to just break the record -- they wanted to own it for a long time.

Still, a record's not a record until it's confirmed and recognized by the World Flying Disc Federation, the disc sport record-keeper for Guinness World Records. That means a lot of paperwork, video evidence and reports from two objective observers.

But when they reached the home stretch, they faced another obstacle: tired, hungry, achy, can't-go-on-any-longer bodies.

Play slowed down in the final hours, and a fair number of the players had taped-up knees and ankles. Mind you, each had run the equivalent of nearly three full marathons at that point.

Jaworski tallied up a list of injuries: "Shin splits, foot cramps, knee injuries, two Achilles tendons crapped out, that guy over there, blood vessels popped in his toe, there were a lot of blisters ... I could keep going."

The good news: It looked like none of the injuries was permanent.

"And it was absolutely worth all the pain," Jaworski said. "Because for the rest of my life I'm going to be able to say I helped break a world record. There's no greater feeling."

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