Fear is my strategy

I got together with some friends for some paintball today. The weather was great (not too hot, not too cold), and it's an exhilarating sport (and apparently it's safer than bowling--who knew?). I think it had been three years since the last time I played.

There is one problem for me going to paintball: I fear pain. When I experience pain, I can usually handle it, although it sometimes slows me down and makes me more cautious until it goes away. But I think the anticipation is the worst part. And it hurts to get hit by a paintball.

Most of the games today were team elimination games--two teams trying to wipe each other out. The teams start at opposite ends of the field. I usually stayed somewhere near the back while some others went forward further where they were more exposed to enemy fire. I'm sure this was partially because I didn't want pain. I got hit a few times anyway. After a few quick exits, I sometimes survived until near the end of the game and helped a lot in getting the enemies' last people eliminated.

The first time this happened, we were in a field with towers on each end. We sent two people up onto the tower where they could spy on the enemy and tell us where they were. It was pretty hard for the enemy to hit the guys in the tower without actually getting to the stairs and going up there (which was also pretty hard), but someone managed to hit one of them. Anyway, I ended up being the last person left on my team aside from one or two people in the tower. The other team only had one person left, and if there had been anyone in their tower, they'd abandoned it. With the help of the people up in the tower, I eliminated their last person. And I owe it all (partially) to my fear of pain.