More skating!

Yesterday, I skated outside on my own. That's a first. Fortunately, it went well (I had my phone, too, so if I had hurt myself I could have called someone). My original plan was to skate on the path along the riverside in downtown Corvallis, but that path is not so great for skating. It is concrete, with grooves every six feet or so (which I didn't like but wasn't awful), and some areas with multiple grooves about six inches apart (these sucked). Also, there are areas that are brick, and that is not fun to skate on.

Fortunately, that path merges with the asphalt bike path that runs from Corvallis to Philomath (come on, guys, isn't it about time the path was extended to Albany?) I decided to try it instead. I had not skated on it since about 1997 (when I tried it on Rollerblades and ended up in tears because I just couldn't handle it). Sick Town uses it for advanced-level outdoor skating, but I figured I could just try it and if it was too tough for me I could turn around. (Besides, I know that path well enough to know that the really tough hills are farther out than I was likely to go, out toward Philomath.)

I skated as far as 26th Street and back, twice. It was a good workout, but nothing I couldn't handle. I bombed the hills, no problem. (Well, I did snowplow some to control my speed.) There was a lot of debris on the path, but that was easier than the grooves in the concrete.

Today, Charlie and I went up to Oaks Park for their evening open skate. It was fun (still hot, but not as bad as Saturday). The music wasn't what I would have chosen -- mostly 1980s R&B (I think). I didn't recognize that many songs.

One cool thing is that there were a lot of derby people. If there had been someone from Emerald City (Eugene), then every league from the Oregon I-5 corridor would have been represented. G.I. Jess was there from Southern Oregon (nice girl; she started about when I did. I hope next time we meet it will be in a bout!); a girl whose name I've forgotten was there from Cherry City (though she has moved to Portland and is thinking about trying out for Rose City's fresh meat). There were some RCR hopefuls (good luck ladies!) and several guys from the Portland Men's Derby team. I chatted with a couple of them. They're nice guys. I still don't fully get the point of men's derby (but that is just because I really love women's sports. I don't 100% get the point of men's *basketball*. :-)

What's really neat is that they tried to recruit Charlie! He has come a long way as a skater. We stopped by their practice (in Rose City's practice space, a hangar on the Oaks Park property) after we were done skating. Charlie's not interested in joining (which is fine with me!), but it was cool to see someone else being tormented with falling drills and shopping carts. :-)

Rose City has an awesome practice space, BTW. I'm jealous.

Tomorrow I will probably give my legs a break, but Friday I'm going to skate outside again.