Now I'm beat, part 1

OMFG SO MUCH FUN. I'm super tired now and just got home and my brain, arms and legs don't work properly, but I'll see if I can write this out before I forget.

We drove up to Richmond yesterday at 6am, and we got to the venue around 9:15 or so. The event was hosted my River City Rollergirls, and they were all super fun. My first bout (with Banned Aid) was at 10:30, so we got there, got our gear on and warmed up for a bit. It was at the Richmond Convention Centre in one of their big convention hall/pavillion things. They had set up the room so there were rows of chairs around a bit marked off as the track.

Inside the pavillion, from the corner. It was a big room.

The surface we were skating on was polished concrete. It was just the floor of the room, and outlined with a rope that was duct taped down. Basically, it was slick as fuck, and REALLY hard to fall on. There was no give (unlike the roller rink floor at NRV). Basically if you fell, you just went THUD and then slid for about 20 feet. I had four of my old super Gs on as well as my new yellow bullets, since my pink bullets were 91s. And even then I had trouble slowing down. I tried doing some plow stops on it and it took a LOT of push to try to stop within a reasonable distance. I tried hockey stops and almost fell on my face. It was tough.

SO SLICK. I'm surprised I didn't break my face.

I think the first bout was my favorite one of the day. It was Zombies vs. Vampires, and I skated for team Vamp so I didn't have to bring multiple shirts. Haha. 40 (our benchie) had done the mass email where we all introduced ourselves, so at least we felt like we had known each other a little before we met. Lineups felt pretty organized, even though we'd all only met each other. We were encouraged to try whatever positions and stuff, and it was all for fun and experience, so why not?

I have to admit I was pretty nervous jamming though, but once I got into the hang of it it was fine. On my first go as jammer (I think jam #4 or something), I appparently forearmed someone on the way out of the pack and didn't get lead, but then the other jammer got binned so I had to jam the full two minutes myself. I think I scored like 17 points on that one; it was super awesome and I felt great afterwards when I fell onto the bench. Haha. Also, because of the floor, there were times I came out of a corner and almost just fell on my ass for no reason. I think everyone was skating slower than what they were used to because the floor was so weird. But it was good; once we got the hang of it things picked up.

I need medical assistance and chapstick.

I jammed a few times again after that, and also did some blocking. They were only half hour bouts, so not very long at all. At one point I hit a girl out so my jammer could get through, and as she got through she thanked me by hitting me in the mouth with her elbow. :P Then for the rest of that jam I was skating with blood on my face and in my mouthguard and all over my teeth. Gross. When that jam ended, I had to go to the EMT to get my mouth and mouthguard rinsed out, and stop my mouth from bleeding. But then I was on my 4th minor and binned, so I had to sit in the bin while washing out my mouth and spitting into a cup and icing my lip which ended up getting all fat and bloody. Ugh. I have to say, for team Vamp, I'm not really liking the taste of my own blood. I am however happy to report that that was the extent of my muntings; hooray!

That was pretty much the end of the bout, and we won! Hooray. I was about to jam the next lineup but then we ran out of time. Actually, it turned out that I was always going to jam the next lineup when the bout was over. WTF. Haha. Every time we did the hug/high five line I had a jammer panty on my head. HA. But yeah, I felt really good after that bout; in the hug/H5 line random people from other leagues and in the audience were congratulating me and talking about how I did well and stuff and all these little kids wanted high fives. :D Hahaha. It made me feel less sucky about my skating abilities, and I think I am slowly getting over my fear of jamming and taking hard hits.

Ghetto icepack, and lunch sandwich

Anyway, after that bout the EMTs gave me a towel covering a makeshift icepack, which turned out to be a rubber glove full of ice. It was fine, but then then it was lunchtime so not very good for eating. I stayed and watched the co-ed bout (Hanukkah vs Christmas) and that was fun; Gritz was in that one and she knocked some boys over.

The second bout (sugar plums vs. candy canes) was after the lunch break, and some of the girls on the Vamp team were also on that one, so we had an idea of how each other worked. I don't think our lineups were as organized. Our benchie basically designated people positions, and unless you said something you were put into some position; like she just handed out the jammer/pivot panties instead of like in the first one with 40 when had chairs designated J, P, 1, 2, 3 and you could sit where you wanted to try out that position.

All I did for that bout was jam. I jammed like every 3rd one I think. It was exhausting, but I pulled in some points (although not enough for us to win, boo). I need to work on my conditioning. I think I really like jamming; I like finding holes and pushing through people and I forced a couple of out of plays because I would just come up on someone positionally blocking me and roll right into her butt and push her out of the way. It was fun. I have to admit that I also like that the commentators got to the point when they were like "and it's Chairman Mouse jamming again" and people would cheer. :D

Random wares for sale at Beatings

But yeah, I think our defense was good for that one, but we just didn't score many points because for half the bout the jammer was in the bin. :P So we ended up losing. But it was still a fun game, and then it was time for a massive break! I had over 6 hours until my next bout, so I did a bit of random derby shopping (pink astro-nuts for $6/8, yellow sparkly derbyskinz(!!!) for $20) and checked out some of the other stuff they had. In retrospect I should have probably got some wristguards without the slide-on thing like what mine currently do, but instead the velcro straps, just because right now my fingers are so crooked that it sucks to put those wristguards on. But I forgot to. Whoops.

I ended up going back to the hotel and then doing a bit of work and then passing out. When I woke up, I had a bit of time to get ready for the third bout, but I'll write about it in the next post or something,