So while I have been managing to get through the Derby madness mostly unscathed of late, it appears that 10 year olds are too much for me.
Yesterday I was skating with my sister and her kids at the family skate afternoon.
I was coming around the corner at the end of the rink, and I saw a quarter roll by on the floor.
I thought… “hmm, that’s a hazard… someone’s gonna trip on that”
Then, I looked up, and saw a kid skating across traffic coming DIRECTLY AT ME (presumably going after the quarter).
I had about half a second to decide whether I was going to plow straight into the kid, knock him down, and probably land on top of him, or fling myself to the side to avoid him.
Not wanting to be listed as the cause of death on anyone’s death certificate, I flung myself to the side. Sadly, that was all the reaction time I had, so I pretty much landed on my face.
Ow.
No teeth busted (or even loose), thank goodness. But I have a fat lip, and a small bruise above my eye, and a nice big bruise / scrape on my knee.
I honestly have no idea what happened to the kid. I didn’t see anyone rolling around in pain on the rink after I managed to jump up, skate around to the place where my bag was, and plop down to nurse my face, so I am assuming he was unharmed.
I wasn’t really thinking anything but “OW” when I got up, though, so I hope nothing bad happened to him.
I went over, sat down and put my head between my knees. The pain went away pretty rapidly, so I was thinking I was ok. Then my sister skated up and I lifted my head up. I guess from the look on her face, I must not have looked too good, because her eyes went SO WIDE and she dashed off to get a bag of ice.
At that point I got my towel and wiped my face and saw there was blood… I split my lip when I hit the floor.
So that was my skating adventure this weekend. As I was going down, all I could think was… Damn, THIS is why we wear pads to practice. If I’d been wearing my gear, my helmet would have taken the floor before my mouth. Of course… no one expects to have to avoid a tackle when it’s just the Sunday afternoon skate!
