Flying Lessons

I took an unintentional flying lesson last night.

My team was having some private track time and we were getting warmed up with some quick laps in a pace line. The track was getting slippery due to nighttime condensation. The first girl in line slipped and fell. The next girl fell. I decided to go around them by flying up to the rail and stopping there.

Except that I didn't stop.

Because of the track's moistness(heehee! I said "moist"!), my stop didn't stop and I flew out feet-first through the hole between the track and the rail. Um, wow.

I remember thinking, This wasn't supposed to happen!

Then I remember looking to one side thinking, This really doesn't look right.

Then I remember landing on my back with my head rapping against the cement. I thought, OWCH!

I flew off the highest point in the turn, which is about four feet off the ground. Add my own height of almost six feet to that, and you get an idea of how amazingly painful this move could be.

Another thing of mild interest is that now I'm the third person on my team to fly off the track in similiar circumstances. The other two instances happened two years ago with two of my jammers at different times on different nights. One was blocked out of bounds during a jam, and when she flew off she landed on huge pieces of styrofoam that were set up around the track for just such an emergency. She shook it off and kept skating the jam.

The other was also blocked out during a jam, but she didn't have the luxury of anything to land on except cement...and broken glass. She was done for the rest of the night, but she was unharmed. Neither of them landed on their heads quite like I did.

I have a concussion at least, 'cos I'm a little bit dizzy.

My lower back hurts. My left wrist is painful. My right shoulder got tweaked again.

However, my head and back where I landed are pain-free so far.

Weird.