Sophistik8

Sorry this post has been a bit late in coming. I have had the same icky sickness for about 3 weeks now and I just can’t kick it. I have stayed home from work today and hopefully a day of rest and recuperation will kick my immune system into shape.

Last Sunday, Valentine’s Day, was the most amazing day ever! The excitement started Saturday night. Ryan and I made sushi for V-day (we like to stay in and cook a gourmet meal for ourselves) and hopefully he will post something on his blog about that experience. I could barely sleep Saturday night thinking about my upcoming bout…my heart felt like it was going a million miles an hour. I woke up sharply at about 7am on Sunday and had 3 agonizing hours to get ready before my ride picked me up. Then we got to the rink about 30 minutes early and had to kill some time at Target and attempt to forget about our nerves.

We did a walk through of the bout around 11am and then had warm ups. It felt really good to get the nerves out before we were relegated to the kiddie rink (which they had blocked off with tarps for our “locker room”). We waited very patiently (not!) as the crowd began filling up Winwood until at 2pm the bout was ready to begin! Both teams were introduced and then we went through a quick “How Roller Derby is Played” demo which I got to participate in. Then the fun began.

I never knew that 40 minutes could go by so quickly! I jammed a lot and blocked a few times and had the best time ever! It was exciting, it was exhilarating, it was terrifying and wonderful all at the same time! Our team did a great job of talking to each other, and I think everyone, including the other team played at 110%. We were sitting on the same side of the rink as the score board so I didn’t actually know the score most of the time, and I was pretty sure we were winning (we were playing like winners!). But in the end, the red team beat us by about 20 points (still don’t know the official score).

But the fun didn’t end there. At the end of the bout we were drafted onto our teams…I am a DREADNOUGHT DOROTHY! So get ready, buy your tickets, and I will see you at the first bout on March 26th!!! In the meantime here is some footage put together by my wonderful relative, Scott, to tide you over till then!