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| My First Time |
| 03.15.04 (11:42 am) [edit] |
Entering a post here for the first time made me think of a very short story I wrote a long time ago:
"It was only twelve bucks, for twenty four hours, and the safety equipment came with. How could I lose?" I thought to myself.
Now I sit here with a few bruises, sore legs and butt, and a blister with the answer staring me in the face. Actually, it sounds worse than it was, it was probably one of the most fun things I've done in a long time. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my ego, but I gold plated that so it wouldn't hurt too bad the morning after. Good thing there was no video camera...
Mike was totally excited too. He had never done it before either. With the safety equipment and all, how could we go wrong? It was nice out side too. Another incentive to take it to a public place so we had more room to move around.
I was a little self-conscious about what I was wearing. Mike said not to wear too much, cause I would get too hot, and probably would want to take it off anyway, so I took his advice. He's a smart guy, and was right. Since we did it for 2 1/2 hours, I did work up a pretty good sweat.
We drove to the store about 2 PM, picked up our special equipment, and headed to the park. To our amazement, we weren't the only people with this idea. There were tons of people there, and some of them even doing the same thing we dared to do. I never dreamed this would happen. It made me feel a little better, except they were very experienced. They did it with grace and ease, but I knew I'd probably spend more time on my back then they would.
I strapped on my knee and elbow pads, as Mike said it was a little rough, and he didn't want me to get hurt. So I took his advice. I also wore the wrist guards, so if I ended up on my knees I could support myself. Then was the moment I've been waiting two years for. Yes, two years. That was when I first wanted to do this. I've thought about it every day since, as I know a lot of people had. But I was worried about getting hurt. Mike thought this was a great idea, because he didn't want to hurt me, and it was going to take a lot of stamina. So here I was... I strapped them on, and was ready to roll...
My legs were shaky, but Mike gently held my hand and guided me along. Even though it was his first time too, he was much more coordinated than me, and didn't have too much trouble. I, on the other hand, was a klutz. I fell several times at the beginning, and people laughed and wanted to help me, but I told them that I was just learning, and I would get the hang of it eventually.
After a rough start, I started to get the hang of it. With each stroke I went faster and faster. That was the fun part. Mike was much faster than me, but he was patient, and waited for me. I took a couple of breaks and let him go on his own for a while. He was happy, cause he could go REALLY fast that way, but he always came back to me and we would resume my slightly slower pace.
I never dreamed it was going to be this much work, but it was well worth it. When we were finished we sat in my car, glistening in sweat, resting from the exercise, and feeling completely satisfied. Being out in the fresh air with my very good friend and finally accomplishing a goal was a great feeling. And even though I wasn't as good at it as some, it was more satisfying than I'd ever imagined. And even though people laughed at my ungracefulness, at least I was out doing something that I had wanted to do for a long time. Oh by the way... I will do it again. I'll probably do it with other people as my skills improve. It's good to do it with lots of different people, as long as you go protected.
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