Talk Derby To Me

The crackle of energetic anticipation filled the air of the AT&T Sports Pavilion on Saturday night as The Don Ho's and The Hula Girls took to the flat track for fast paced battle of strength, wits, and skill as they embraced in battle over who would emerge victorious from the bout. There would be pushing, shoving, tripping, elbows thrown, full body checks, and cartwheels by the end of the night. Some would spend time in the penalty box and others would rocket their way onto the scoreboard. It was a match-up of two teams of tough ladies coming together to skate circles around each other in hopes of coming away the victor. This is Woman's Flat Track Roller Derby, this is Anchorage, AK, this is Rage City!

The two teams put on a great show as they drove each other around and outside of the oval track. For two hours they relentlessly drove harder and faster around the oval, wearing each other down physically and mentally. Always on the hunt for the opening where their jammer could break through the pack and get out and score.

Both these teams are made up of members of other teams in the Rage City Roller Girls league and they put on a Hawaiian themed bout on Saturday as a way to bring some warmth in the frozen month of January. While the girls hit hard and push each other to the edge of the track, they are friends and colleagues on the track. With many rookie girls on the league this year this bout was a great way to get some of the Fresh Meat teams sort playing time. With a sold out house they did that and more.

I wanted to try an experiment while I was working the derby bout and see if my Nike+ would track my distance as I cruised the arena shooting photos. So I turned it on at the start of the night and ultimately it failed. Ikept turning off due to inactivity or interruptions from phone calls. In the end it tracked me for .14 miles, but only covered a small portion of the bout. I learned that it isn't a good way to track stop and start movement.

With this very short distance increase I move my overall distance for the year to 48.97 miles, a few hundred feet farther down the road than I was before