A Little Rollergirl Action

"She sighed contentedly, feeling her muscles clench yet revelling in the slight pain. The ache between her thighs, the tightness of her stomch, the weariness across her shoulders all served to remind her of the pleasures she had experienced. The pleasures of yesterday but with the promise of more to come..."

Forbidden sexual liasons? Almost - it was SKATE practise yesterday!

For the first time in what feels like forever I made it to practise! Last time I was there was four weeks ago - the first week after that it wasn't on, the second week I was getting pissed on the South Coast and the third week I was completely and utterly dead with a nasty virus picked up from my pal Ruth whilst on the South Coast. I was most definitely not at 100% yesterday - it was a particularly evil cold-type-bug and I'm still decidedly dodgy - my stamina levels suffered the most - I could skate - I just couldn't keep up a good level of skating performance for long but given how damn sick I've been - and that it was the first time I'd put my skates on for almost four weeks - I was pretty happy with it.

We have newbies. LOTS of newbies! Its awesome! I don't know what the roster figures are like at the minute but we had a load of new ladies there this week and there had been more on the weeks I'd missed. Its like.... WOW I go back and all of a sudden we have 3 or 4 teams worth of girls.

I do think there's something of a misconception about roller derby girls as being big, tough, rugby-playing, arm-wrestling psycho bitches. We're not - if you're even thinking about joining a league, don't be scares by the image. We're lovely :o) <-- see the lovely? We have women of all ages - from 18 right up to - well I don't want to speculate on our oldest teammate but her daughter is also in the league :o) We have mums, students, teachers, arty types, civil cervants, rugby players and I believe a girl from the navy amongst other things. We range in size from tiny, delicate little girlies right up to a whole lotta woman. Everyone is welcome - over 18s only please - and its FUN! We're at http://gloucester-rollerderby.co.uk/

So, this week's practise. My chauffer (aka my husband) didn't get lost this time so we were early. I was impatient and had itchy feet so got in some practise laps while everyone else was kitting up. I'm glad I did, I knew I'd be a bit wobbly to start with and getting that out of the way without anyone else to fall over was useful. Then it was 5 minutes of speed skating, which is where I started to fall down (quite literally, and I have the bruise to prove it). I need to curb my natural competitiveness, I was running at first for the first 9 or so laps and then my stamina gave out - pushing myself WAY too hard given how bloody sick I've been. Kudos to Sulu and Nadine for getting all 20 laps done in an amazing time - I had to stop before finishing before I actually collapsed.

Luckily the rest of the practise was a little easier, with stops, falls, crouches and gliding (yay! I feel as graceful as a figure skater. Who'd have thought?!) and some choo-choo-ing and weaving in and out of a line of skaters. All blissfully manageable after nearly dying trying to do speed laps.

Then it was pub, and with the wonderful combination of exercise, Day Nurse and two pints of Stella I was definitely on the giggly-tipsy side by the time we left. I'm still reeling from just how much a beer hits me right after exercise. I'd be a helluva cheap date. If a sweaty one.

Looking forward to next week and managing two weeks running for the second time this year...