Number 36 Came to Roll

I was nervous the whole day, and then eerily calm. That’s when I know life’s about to bring it. I guess I could have been a good emergency room doctor, if it weren’t for all the blood and germs.

After everything, seeing everyone during Skills Nights, I knew that this tryout was a long shot. So I decided to just push it. Push myself. We geared up as we watched another group finish. Everyone seemed so casual from afar. When it was my group’s turn to hit the track, I entered with abandon and focused only on myself.

First off, warm up laps. Who knows, maybe no one was looking then, but I did my thing. Instead of just zipping around like some, I did rotations of every skill I knew we had to show, figure eights, low squats, slaloms. I even started mimicking the Gotham Girls who skated on the track with us. Mentally, I repeated, “look up, stay low.”

Next came the real deal. We were told to do figure eights, then sprint. I pumped those eights like I was Suzanne Somers QA-ing the latest thigh master. I actually zoomed by a bunch of girls. But it tired me out.

Sprint. Oh I did. And I took a digger. But I got right back up and kept going at full speed. “Pacing myself” was not in my game plan tonight. I wanted to go all out, while trying to maintain form, or nothing. I knew there was hardcore talent out there, so this was for me.

Next came one-legged glides on the corners. I swear, so many girls did the reverse of what Ariel demonstrated. Do I get points for listening and watching? Or did I zone out? They weren’t gorgeous glides be any means, but my left and right legs got decent air (for a semi-decent amount of time?) on each respective turn. I learned these skills for the first time this weekend. So I was psyched to get air at all.

And sprint!

Now slaloms. Again, a skill I tried for the first time this weekend. Genius AH put out shoes really close during one of our practices. It was the perfect distance. One side was exactly that far apart, the other much further apart. In between were cones to plow stop and T-stop.

We were told to just go. Go at a decent pace. I went first and totally missed the tight cones. I nailed every stop though! Plow stops too! That was a first. I rocked the far apart cones and kept circling through. I killed the tight cones every other time. If I was lower, I know I could have been better. I’m pretty sure I heard a “nice!” from one of the GGRD judges.

Now falls. One whistle, one knee fall. Two whistles, two knee fall. Three whistles, three point fall (baseball slide). Change directions after each fall. Easy enough directions, no? Apparently, no. Some girls seemed to be all over the place, doing the wrong falls, but I stayed focused, and didn’t copy other girls. I listened closely for the whistles and changed direction every time, and pushed myself to skate hard when I got up. I dropped my hand a few times, but I was up and going by people still down a few times too. I got another “nice” from a different set of judges…not sure who they were. Again, I was all me.

Final exercise was a two-minute sprint. Each judge picked a girl to count laps. I was panting from exhaustion. Others had better stamina or just didn’t go nuts like me. When the whistle blew I went off, my legs were already burning, but I pushed, trying hard to keep my form – “look up, stay low, crossover clean and push.” All was well for a few laps. Then girls got tired. Some fell. Others wobbled and flailed. This may have been happening all night, but it got to me then. I was at my breaking point. I totally had to zip through people and slow down to avoid others. Meanwhile, hardcores zoomed and zoomed around. At one point, a girl was literally leaning into me, pushing me off the track. I stayed upright; she apologized. And I tried to regain momentum, but the whistle was blown shortly thereafter.

I had to know, so I asked Ginger Snap, the girl counting my laps, how I did. She said, “8.5 laps.” You’re supposed to be able to do 5 laps in one minute and 20 laps in five minutes. I was smiling with glee anyway.

No matter what happens next, I have another goal to work on. No matter what, I set out and did.

I want to cry and laugh all at once.

No matter what, I’ll be back…eventually.