Bout day is here.

There are many mountains in derby. You pass fresh meat, you get to scrimmage, you get drafted to a team, you do your first bout.

Today is bout day. It's the first time I will get to bout for a team representing my league. I will get to do a rollout. I will get to wear a team jersey with my name on it (see below) I will get to do a 2-3 hour road trip with my teammates and leaguemates to travel to the bout venue. I will get to play derby with people with whom I've trained and practiced with for the last couple of months, and we know how each other work. 

I don't know if we'll win, but that seems secondary to actually getting to bout right now. It feels like it's been a long time coming for me. But, as the Chinese saying goes, for every mountain, there is a higher mountain. So the challenges will still be coming, which is good for not stagnating.

I'll write a report up of how the bout went later today (or maybe tomorrow, depending on how tired I am), but if it was anything like the practice bouts and scrimmages I've done, things will be good. This is one mountain I've been looking to get over for a while, and I'll be happy to have conquered it.

Also, don't forget that any part of a good uniform involves sparkly yellow derbyskinz (they look better with a butt in them):