The first day of the event started at Gateway Park, just over the bridge in Virginia. We had a permit for the park this year (which means the city supports pk! woo!) so APK was able to bring their own obstacles to set up a crazy course for the fast competition and some other fun stuff for the community. This was my first parkour jam and while I was excited, I was definitely a little overwhelmed. There were so many people of all different backgrounds and skill levels. We were also outnumbered by guys as usual, but there were a dozen or so girls at the event this year. I brought my friend, N, who had never trained parkour before but is really into fitness so I thought she'd like it. She ended up loving it (yay!) and we had a lot of fun before she had to go to work later that afternoon. We also managed to find the other girls pretty quickly, introduce ourselves and bond as a group over our unique love for pk. Talking to other girls in the parkour community made me think about it for the first time. We’re doing something incredibly unique and it’s important to recognize that and support each other as we train and grow.
We also took a few awesome photos (ladies only). Here is one of us on the “awkward bars”:
After playing at Gateway Park all morning, watching the fast competition, saying hi to people and making new friends, we broke into smaller groups to train in different parts of the city. I was so caught up in the day’s events that I never left to get lunch so I hoped all the Vita Coco (one of this year’s sponsors) would keep me alive enough to keep training. I headed to Georgetown University with one of the breakout groups because I realized I had never walked around the campus before. It’s freaking beautiful. In that old-school prestigious kind of way. They also have some interesting training spots.
I worked on a few cool challenges including a set of rails I wanted to precision. There were four railings in a row across a wide set of stairs with just enough room at the bottom for me to perch my feet on. Although I've become pretty comfortable with rail precisions, I've never actually tried to do more than one in a row so I thought it'd be a good challenge for me. I always landed the first one, but it was a matter of staying up once I landed, or transitioning quickly enough to take off again before I lost my balance. I told one of the guys, T2, about my challenge and of course he does it in one try. Your turn, he says, looking at me expectantly. Well now that you've made it look so easy, I'm thinking, irritated. I tried a few more times, but my foot started slipping and I was worried about hurting myself so I took a break. I'm determined to go back on a good day and train until I nail those precisions. I can't leave a challenge incomplete like that. Even if it takes more than one session, I want to do it.
I hadn’t thought much about it before but now I’m noticing the word challenge more when people train. Everyone is constantly thinking of challenges for themselves and for each other... and asking me to think of them. A traceur will look at their environment, “trace” a path in their head (see what I did there?), and then present it to someone as a challenge. I guess it’s a fun way to engage others and not just challenge yourself. It’s also a way of sharing the way you see your environment, whereas another traceur might have chosen a different course. You want to think of something that will push you, but also something within your reach. And within the reach of the person you’re challenging. It’s very different than any other physical discipline I’ve trained.
After a couple of hours at Georgetown, we headed back to the park to wrap up and get some food before the rock climbing event later that night. I was so tired I couldn't even force myself to go. I was home by 10pm and in bed within the hour. I know, I'm an old lady. But I had to rest up for day two!
To be continued...
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