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I used my 20 seconds of courage a few months back to sign myself up to the local roller derby league (a league so new that there isn't even a whole team of players yet) which surprised absolutely everyone I knew because I am the uncoordinated, unfit, flailing, klutz of my social circle. I also had absolutely no roller skating experience (excepting a few times on rollerblades back when I was a very small girl) so I went in with no skills whatsoever but all the determination to learn. Turns out I love the feeling of flying around with wheels on my feet and I rose to the challenge of not being able to do things the first time around (something my perfectionist nature hates with a passion. xD) Today (on the 18th of october, 2015) I successfully passed the testing requirements to pass the "Fresh Meat" stage of roller derby - meaning I'm allowed to hit people now! xD It's only a small part of the journey to becoming a full roller derby player, but I never thought I could do anything that required coordination or fitness or even strapping wheels to my feet for pete's sake! xD My next step is to now pass Level 2, which is contact skating and strategy and stuff, so that will be a whole new learning curve, but I'm so excited for all the new things I get to learn. And I get to keep skating!

This might not make much sense to people who don't play roller derby but last night I smashed my PB of laps in 5 minutes by a lap and a half! I never thought I'd be able to do that until I just did! I launched myself over the line just before the whistle went, my mental game was really strong, I didn't want to let my lap counter down. I concentrated on my breathing and ignored the massive runner throat I was getting (suffering for it this morning though!). That feeling of achieving that target was incredible. In my mind only the super fit, speedy A-Star player could do 30. And then I did it! 30 in 5! Woot! Background info: to play roller derby in official games you have to be able to skates 27 laps around the track in 5 mins. It's pretty brutal and stamina isn't my strong point anyway. So 30 laps is 6 per minute, constant speed of 12mph. And you don't do it one at a time either, there is a whole bunch of you.

I had been a smoker for about 4 years, a pack a week until about six months ago. My religion was telling me to take better care of myself and I listened. With my own strong will, I stopped smoking cold turkey on December 21st. I'm pretty darn proud of myself!