Kerry1996
Active member
A close friend wondered if I'd be interested in joining him, his daughter, and her buddy for some roller skating. Absolutely! I thought to myself, "There's nothing better than a roller rink." I was on skates all the time growing up; the rink was *the* place to hang out in my little town on weekends.
On the way there, it dawned on me that it had been at least 19 years since I last strapped on roller skates. I'm 45 now. But I scoot around on a razor scooter all the time, so I figured, "It's like riding a bike, right? You never really forget."
Wrong! Turns out, you CAN forget how to roller skate and need to relearn. I bit it hard in the first few minutes, then got up, thought, "Okay, not *that* way. Let's try something else." After some trial and error, my body started to remember how things worked and I could actually skate. I was mostly okay, with decent speed and some grace, aside from the occasional balance wobble. I skated for maybe two hours, and fell again towards the end. I was watching some dude dancing and thought, "Hmm, I wonder if I still got those moves?" Just thinking about it was enough to throw me off, and I ended up doing the splits, landing on my stomach in spectacular fashion. The guy helped me up, and I laughed, saying, "Guess my body said NOPE to that dancing idea!" I did a couple more laps, then it was time to go.
My left cheek is kinda sore from the first fall, and my arms and knees are a bit tender from the second. But here I am, chilling on the sofa, feeling incredibly thankful that I'm 45 and in good enough shape that two wipeouts on a wooden floor aren't enough to really hurt me. Some of my friends have had falls just walking around and ended up with multiple broken bones, torn tendons, and needing surgery. But hitting the deck at 45 feels a lot like it did at 25: "Ouch! Better get up quick before anyone sees me. How embarrassing!" I'll probably be a little stiff tomorrow, but that's it. What a great deal.
And, gotta give it five stars for roller rinks! They're still just as fun as they were back in the day!
On the way there, it dawned on me that it had been at least 19 years since I last strapped on roller skates. I'm 45 now. But I scoot around on a razor scooter all the time, so I figured, "It's like riding a bike, right? You never really forget."
Wrong! Turns out, you CAN forget how to roller skate and need to relearn. I bit it hard in the first few minutes, then got up, thought, "Okay, not *that* way. Let's try something else." After some trial and error, my body started to remember how things worked and I could actually skate. I was mostly okay, with decent speed and some grace, aside from the occasional balance wobble. I skated for maybe two hours, and fell again towards the end. I was watching some dude dancing and thought, "Hmm, I wonder if I still got those moves?" Just thinking about it was enough to throw me off, and I ended up doing the splits, landing on my stomach in spectacular fashion. The guy helped me up, and I laughed, saying, "Guess my body said NOPE to that dancing idea!" I did a couple more laps, then it was time to go.
My left cheek is kinda sore from the first fall, and my arms and knees are a bit tender from the second. But here I am, chilling on the sofa, feeling incredibly thankful that I'm 45 and in good enough shape that two wipeouts on a wooden floor aren't enough to really hurt me. Some of my friends have had falls just walking around and ended up with multiple broken bones, torn tendons, and needing surgery. But hitting the deck at 45 feels a lot like it did at 25: "Ouch! Better get up quick before anyone sees me. How embarrassing!" I'll probably be a little stiff tomorrow, but that's it. What a great deal.
And, gotta give it five stars for roller rinks! They're still just as fun as they were back in the day!
