Doing This

Last weekend I played in what I consider to be my first competitive roller derby scrimmage. To explain the "what I consider to be" part, my FIRST scrimmage took place during this weekend which I blogged about last year. However, I was fresh, so fresh I had a 'F' on my arm with my number so more experienced player knew not to hit me...much.

This scrimmage there was no 'F' on my arm. We set it up with another team a couple of hours away. They've been playing about as long as us but have had the opportunity to play other teams. I was under the impression that this scrim would be mostly about learning and getting to know each other. My impression was false. It was competitive and it was rough. Just so you know I was not surprised to find that roller derby is rough, only this game in particular.

Within seconds of playing I was rocked several times. What happened next did surprise me. I remember thinking, "Wow, this is really rough." and then a huge involuntary smile broke out of my face (which looks pretty silly when you are wearing a mouth guard) and I realized that I loved it. I loved people slamming into me trying to knock me down and failing (most of the time). The realization of this and what it indicates about me (I'm nuts) made me grin uncontrollably.

I wasn't smiling the entire time though. By half time (30 minutes in) I felt like barfing. There is nothing like thinking you are in pretty good shape and finding out you were horribly wrong. Although I think it had more to do with the fact that in that kind of competitive situation (before you've become accustomed to it) you forget to breath. Skating really hard + not breathing = feeling like you want to puke or pass out.

The second half was much better. I survived and had an immense feeling of satisfaction. I knew I'd made the right decision to start playing roller derby. It's something I'm good at and I can only get better. I'm about to invest in some serious skates which will be my birthday present. I can justify it because I know I'm going to keep doing this for a while and I think it's in my favor to do it in a Porsche instead of a Chevy. I'm doing this.