Monday 5 May 2008

Catcrawl (April)

I'm mid-way in the process of collecting sponsors, it's only just really hit me what I've achieved. On the grand scale of things it may not seem much but to me the event tested me both physically and mentally.

I prepared physically for about a month leading up to the event which proved difficult as i didn't want to adjust my normal training too much and only have gains that would aid me for the catcrawl. I did allot of planch training mixed up with press-up variations and of course catcrawls. For the catcrawls i spent allot of the time going backwards up stairs and such to put a greater strain on my arms, this proved most effective in training for the event and is the exercise i did most.

Mentally i also prepared for the challenge, i spent allot of time reading articles about people who had pushed themselves to the limit in endurance event's. I also watched Jin's catcrawl video a large number of time to really drive me through training and have a mental picture of things to come. On the day of the event i was pretty sure music would drive me most the way and i had relied greatly on this until Darren forgot to bring his i-pod to lend me on the day, this was, at first, a huge blow to my confidence and i began to panic at the starting line. As the event proceeded without music i was given allot of time to think. I was without distraction so in the end I'm thankful Darren forgot the i-pod, i really began to reflect and question why i was doing the event based on a parkour movement anyway, i started to consider my training and parkour lifestyle and pondered quite a bit on how selfish parkour really is. Parkour is about you and your journey, when i thought this i truly began to believe i was creating a balance between the selfish side of parkour and the selflessness of the act i was performing. This was comforting and really helped push me. That was one of many thought trains i went through on the day and don't think that my family and friend's presence wasn't as big a pushing factor because it was. This all i really have to say on this milestone of my parkour journey so far, as for the charity and how much raised etc.. the following video pretty much explains it all.