By Anne Opalko.
Location: Columbus, Ohio.
I get up early to pack my luggage. It wasn’t difficult, since I’d only taken a carry on backpack, and most of the food has long since been consumed. With that done, I go to meet the other traceurs in the lobby. The atmosphere is much more relaxed now than it was the first day – we’re all broken in, used to each other, more comfortable. An incredibly cheesy action movie is playing on the TV. We sit around and watch it for a while, watching the actresses perform superhuman feats, each silently measuring how possible the feats actually are.
Then it’s time to go again, for our last day’s training. I check out of the hotel, get in the car with Dan and some others, and we go off to the park again. We’re there early. While everyone’s signing in, Dan herds us over to the hill with concrete ledges. We wait again for everyone to finish signing in, then form up into the familiar lines. My group is with Alli and Chris Keighley. We stand in a circle to warm up and do joint rotations, having to part ranks every so often for a bewildered biker to get by. We hold all kinds of isometrics, “Point nine eight, point nine nine, point nine nine one, point nine nine two…” We move into lunges, both forwards and to the side, with a hip rotation similar to that of a crescent kick. I’m sweating again – it looks like this might be the hottest day, and we’re all tired from previous days. We line up at the bottom of the stairs, and begin to jog up them. We circle around a lightpole near the top of the stairs, then go back down. Then up the stairs again, and back down. I begin to lose count of how many times we’ve done this, and at the same time I’m losing my breath. I try to keep the same distance behind the person in front of me, try not to get behind. Alli and Chris urge us to gain speed on the landings in between the steps so we don’t fall behind. We hop up the stairs with one foot, then the other. It’s getting harder and harder to jump, let alone breathe. I trip on a step and step out of line to catch my breath. “You okay? Are you asthmatic?” Alli asks. I shake my head, my throat too dry to answer properly. He coaches me in developing a breathing pattern – controlling your breath is controlling yourself, something I’ve heard all weekend. I’m dimly aware of Julie standing near us, with her camera, as is usual. I hope I don’t show up in any videos looking as ridiculous as I feel, but I have much bigger concerns right now. I jog to my water, and drink running in place, not wanting to stop muscle contraction for fear I’ll lose momentum. The water is almost burning – I’ve left it sitting in the sun. No matter. I run to get back in the line. It goes on and on, two footed jumps, up two steps at a time, up three, over and over. I just put one fit in front of the other and try to keep a pattern to my breathing. Everyone running with me is very supportive, though, and it’s wonderful. Finally, amazingly, it’s over, and I am not dead. I’ve gotten my butt kicked by those stairs, true, but that’s kind of what I signed up for, and now I know something else to train. Our shout of “We start together, we finish together!” is considerably quieter than at the beginning of the day, but it’s still strong. I grab my water, lie down on the concrete to bring my breathing under control. I have a feeling about what’s coming next, and I need to be ready.
Just as I suspected, the line forming by the stairs was now getting into QM position. From the first landing down five or so steps -the first pass. “Don’t stick your knees out to the side,” is a useful piece of advice I receive on my way down. Then up to the second landing and down, and so on. When we reach the top, and get to rest for a moment, I’m not the only one to lie down. Mike leaves a print of the Parkour Horizons logo on the concrete with his shirt sweat. Then we start from the bottom and go up, backwards, adding one set of steps each time. Then back down. At some point we start singing – Bon Jovi, Aladdin, Mulan. “Smile!” we’re urged. “It’s very important to smile!” Then some more QM – jumping from the hands, every other step, more and more. We break for the second time to get water, then form a circle again. Everyone’s in plank position for push ups and diving monkeys. We do elements of the monkeys, then whole ones. Sweat is literally streaming down my face, mixing with sunscreen and running into my eyes. I try to clear them by blinking, but the sun is so bright I’m reduced to squinting through slits at the best of times. My clothes are soaked through and sticking to my skin.
“One more, now, but we’re going to do it slowly and all together. Anyone misses, and we’re going to start all over.” We go slowly, slowly. Forearms, palms, forearms, up. Then Chris wants to do one more thing. “Everybody put your hands on a stair where you can put your hands one up and one down.” We do. Then it’s: Push up. Left hand down. Push up. Left hand up, right hand up. Push up. So on. By the last few, we all groan collectively with exertion.
Chris leads us over to some grass to cool down and stretch. “Get in push up position,” he says, and we eye him warily.He laughs. “Don’t be scared.” Oh, it’s just a stretch, that’s all.
Then it’s lunchtime.
I eat two candy bars that I got from the vending machine at the hotel. Normally this would leave me reeling in a sugar coma, but I don’t feel any ill effects. The two liters of water probably helped. Then the news that after lunch we’ll have free play time until two, then stretch out. I take the time to rehydrate, take a few pictures, and talk to Julie, Chau, and Yann. I take some video of people jumping and flipping, and then it’s time to go stretch out.
Credit: Ozzi G.
Blane leads the stretch out this time, and then Stephane guides us in some meditation. After that, there’s a Q&A, and several attendees get things signed. By the time that’s over, it’s already 3:30 – the time assigned for the BBQ to start. My flight leaves at 6:30, so I decide to go to the airport instead of the party, so that I don’t miss my flight.
Credit: Andy Keller
On the plane home, I reflect. The weekend was amazing. I learned so much, met so many people. I’ll be back next time, and I’ll be stronger. But next time, I want to go to dinner with the guests! =D
Credit: Kaisen Necho.
Related posts:
