The lovely and talented Thea Starr mentioned that Jet City Rollergirls were looking for a few good volunteers for their upcoming season. I love to volunteer when I can, so I jumped at the chance; totally unaware of what was to come!
So flash forward to this past Saturday and me helping them setup for the bouts later that night. My job for 2 1/2 hours was to help break apart and put back together the derby track. The track consists of plastic tile squares that snap together. The info I got prior to showing up was "bring garden gloves". I would've added "kneepads, Ibuprofen, 2 gallons of water, bandaids, a sewing kit and a heating pad". ;)
Seriously. It was brutal!
Most of my time was spent on my knees, whacking the floor tiles with my hand to make sure they snapped tight. The giant blister on the palm of my hand was my reward! Along with a sore back, bruised knees, a ripped shirt and wobbly legs!
The bouts that evening were really fun! Those girls kick some serious ass! I can't believe most of them were there helping set up, working harder than I was, then they had to skate in the bouts only a few hours later. That is some serious stamina, ladies! Very impressive.
If you've never been to a roller derby bout, you should definitely check it out. I went years ago to the Rat City Rollergirls in Seattle. But I'm so glad to have a local team closer to home. A few days later, my body is finally healed from basically doing squat thrusts all afternoon! And I can't wait for the next bout!
Fun! Kelli and I went to a Rat city bout last year and had a ton of fun! what a good work out you got at least.
ReplyDeleteAwww! Thanks again Tsuki for volunteering. We love our volunteers so much and I am happy to hear you enjoyed the bout.
ReplyDeleteI am of course 100% biased but I love the people who make up Jet City (volunteers included!) They work hard & play even harder ^_^
As Thea has already said- thanks so much for volunteering! We can't do it without all of our volunteers!
ReplyDeleteHope to see you at the next one! oh and I'm as biased as Thea is :D
~Ruby
Roller Derby? That simply sounds too cool!
ReplyDeleteYes we love our volunteers But we did have a few that would not listen on how to put the track together and not hurt yourself in the process.
ReplyDeleteAfter about the third time someone told me it was just as easy to hit it with your hand as it was to start the tile and then walk on it to snap it together I gave up. Putting the track together for eight seasons ( Rat & Jet City ) you learn what works , what doesn't and what is the easiest and fastest way.
All this being said WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU THE VOLUNTEERS. THANKS SO VERY MUCH TO ALL OUR VOLUNTEERS.
Oh for fun! This is funny as I recently looked into my local Roller Derby club :) I'm not 100% sure I'm up to the challenge. But it sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteahh yes anon...I probably made a mistake in pairing up with someone who had helped out before. Especially since he was a boy and showed me the "manly man" way to do it. When I showed up, there was no real direction as to how it was done so he said "follow me!" But now that I know, I'll resort to foot stomping. But really the hardest part on my body (besides excessive sweating) was the getting up and down to grab more tiles and make more squares. My thighs are just not strong AT ALL! I really need to get back to mountain biking... :)
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