 |
| St Patrick's Day |
I first caught the derby bug when we were living in Long Beach in 2004. I had heard about derby making a comeback in Texas and seen a few videos. It was incredible. At the time I was taking ice skating lessons and flirting with the idea of taking up speed skating so I figured it wouldn't be too hard to transfer those skills from ice to wheels. We moved to San Diego and life just sort of took over. Career, baby all that stuff made me just forget about roller derby for a while. Then two things happened that changed everything.
First in 2008 we moved back to the bay area where derby is alive and well. My job required that I go past Kezar Pavillion where the Bay City Bombers play. I was constantly being reminded of my derby bug every time the bombers put up a banner about an upcoming bout. Then in 2009 Whip It came out and my derby bug started to gnaw at my soul.
 |
| I was off having a baby this day |
One day at the mall Kevin pointed out a small poster advertising a bout in the south bay. It said they were looking for skaters so I wrote down the name of the team and promptly lost it. A few months later Whip It was on cable and I was online. It got me thinking about that poster. So I did a quick search for derby teams near San Francisco. This is how I found the Peninsula Roller Girls a new team that was just getting started. They needed skaters and were willing to take on fresh meat. All levels were welcome.
Now of course I was pregnant at the time. But I sent in my info and told them that it would be a while before I could get on skates but I could help with other support. That was November.
In December the team had a meeting, its first. There were about a dozen of us there and one of the girls brought a coach (her husband.) We were ready to start a team. More meetings were held in January and practices began. Around this same time Johnathan was born. On January 31st I attended my first off skate workout. I strapped my 2 week old baby to my chest and started doing lunges with the rest of my team. Two weeks later I was on skates.
In one month I've gone from being a fidgety nervous skater that could barley stay upright, to an athlete that can do cross-overs, falls, stops and even jumps. I've rearranged the furniture and rugs in my home so I can practice when it's raining out. I've also gone from a size 18 to 14 and lost close to 20 pounds. But best of all I have fallen in love with my team. I've never had much luck making friends with women and suddenly I've got this incredible connection to 20 other girls. Every one of these women is amazing in her own special way. And I consider each of them a friend.
Tomorrow night I take my first skills test. If I pass I can start participating in contact drills. I am so far away from where I was just a month ago that it's still a bit surreal.
