On 21 April 2020, over 28 people across the world walked a mile on a rail in order to raise funds for two mental health charities - Free Your Instinct (UK) and Soul Parkour (Germany). If you’re interested in supporting the fundraiser, you can find out more and donate on the GoFundMe page.
The original challenge was for David Banks to walk 26.2 miles on a rail, hence the Rail Balance Marathon. However, due to an injury, David adapted the challenge: rather than one individual completing the full 26.2 miles, 27 people would each complete a mile. David ended up with people across the world volunteering to donate a mile.
Daniel and I each contributed a mile towards this challenge and we wanted to document our experience in the form of a blog. Daniel’s experience will follow in a separate post.
Preparing for the Challenge
The first thing I needed was an appropriate rail for the rail marathon. Given the situation with COVID-19, I wanted to use a long rail that was low risk, close to home, and in an area where I could not cause any issues for others. Thankfully, there was such a rail within a short walk away from my home. However, the rail was thin and sharp. For those who are unfamiliar with rail balancing, this type of rail is probably one of the most challenging to balance on. I was hoping for a slightly more forgiving type of rail, but I thought it could provide an interesting challenge.
I didn’t feel like I needed much physical preparation for this challenge - I have previously completed the challenge of balancing on a rail continuously for one hour without falling off. A mile on the rail shouldn’t be too bad, even with a thin rail, right? I was about to learn just how difficult it would be...
The Challenge
The rail was 76m long. This meant that I’d have to complete 21.25 lengths of the rail in order to achieve 1 mile.
Given that the rail was quite thin, I decided to be more lenient with myself. If I fell off, I would simply get back on where I fell off. In an ideal world, I would have found a round railI, but given the circumstances, I didn’t want to venture too far and spend a long time outside just to get the ideal conditions.
Although the path next to the rail was quite wide, I set some ground rules to comply with social distancing:
If I saw someone coming towards me, I would get down from the rail and wait on the grass until they had passed.
I would not stay out for any longer than an hour.
The Experience
Lengths 1 and 2 - These lengths were mainly to test the waters. How difficult would this challenge be on this rail? How long would it take to complete?
It took around 3.5 minutes per length and I quickly realised that I would not be able to complete the mile within an hour. Despite that though, I wanted to get in as many lengths as possible, and come back early the next day to finish the challenge.
Lengths 3 and 4 - I ended up rushing these lengths quite a lot as I wanted to get as much done as possible within the hour. But this just ended up in me falling off a lot and becoming frustrated with myself. Why did I go with this rail? Why did I keep falling off? Why can’t I walk any faster? Why are my ankles and feet getting so tired?
Lengths 5-8 - I took a deep breathe at the start of length 5. I decided to let go of my frustrations, slow down, and just start counting my steps. I would count up to 20, and then start again. Rather than focusing on speed, I simply focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
My mind became more relaxed and the balancing became more of a meditative experience. However, my legs were working hard to stabilise with each step, and my ankles were becoming more fatigued. There would be times where I would fall off and not be able to stand on the rail again without taking a break.
Lengths 9-10 - I took a slightly longer break after length 8. I managed to get 2 lengths done fairly quickly. I think these two lengths were my fastest.
Lengths 11-14 - By this point, I only had 15 minutes left. My ankles were tired, but my mind was pretty clear. I had developed a good rhythm by this point. For my final 4 lengths, I ended up being in a state of flow. It felt like the rail was starting to disappear and my body just knew what it needed to do. The final 15 minutes flew by so quickly.
At this point, I really wanted to keep going and finish the challenge, but my hour was up, so I accepted it was time to go home for the day.
Lengths 15-21.25 - I went back to the rail the next morning. Given my experience from the previous day, I was able to get into the flow state much easier. I completed the remaining lengths in around 30 minutes.
Reflection
The challenge was a mixture of focus, determination, frustration, and then calm. It was nice to work through those different emotions and come out with a sense of achievement. It was inspiring to know that others were also doing this challenge.
It’s been a while since I’ve completed a challenge like this. Work or life just seems to get in the way these days, especially over the past few weeks adapting to lockdown life. But I think it was definitely something that I needed at a time like this for my own mental health.
The challenge helped me to reflect on my own Parkour practice:
Perseverance - I never used to be very good at balancing on a rail. Even after doing Parkour for about 2 years, I struggled with balancing. But it became a skill that I would practice at the start of every training session. It took a lot of time and patience for me to develop this skill, so it is certainly one of the skills that I now enjoy the most. Having to go through the mental and physical battle of balancing on this thin, sharp rail for a mile reminded me of the hours I would spend on a rounded rail back in 2007/2008. This was a period where I drilled things to such a fine detail. Being reminded of this period of my training has really inspired me to spend more time training like this again.
Connected to others - Despite being physically alone when completing the challenge, it was inspiring to know that 27 other people were taking part too. They were all going through the same issues: finding an appropriate rail, setting aside time, and coming together for a challenge to raise funds for a great cause. It made me think that we should do challenges with others like this more often, i.e. we all complete the same challenge, but we do so individually from our own location. It’s definitely a great chance to connect with those who you would not regularly see.
Gratitude - At a crazy time like this, being on a rail for a mile helped me to think about all the things I had to be grateful for. I was grateful for the amazing sunshine that day, for the support of others, for having a rail so close to home, and for being able to be outside for a period of time during the day.
Overall, I’ve been really inspired with this challenge. The perseverance required in the challenge and the connection with others during this challenge really re-ignited a lot of the passion that had become dormant in my Parkour practice.
My training is likely to consist of solo training and home training for the foreseeable future. However, this is not too dissimilar to how I trained from 2007 to 2009, which were some of the best years of my training. I’m excited about the prospect of utilising my future sessions to embrace the essence of training again.
Thank you to everyone who has supported this fundraiser!
David is intending on completing the full marathon once he has recovered and is able to do so. Hopefully I’ll be able to join and support David for the full marathon!
