I found out that there was a local parkour club in Rochester. Today, they had an open session so I decided to check it out. I am a parkour novice, having only read about parkour and seen a few videos.
The session was led by a younger guy, who I think is a local college student. I was a good bit older than everyone else, but that was okay. After a warm-up, we started with a simple obstacle, jumping over a park bench.
Next was a running wall climb, where you sort of run up a wall and try to get over it. For some reason, I seemed to excel at this. A couple people said I made it look easy - I have no idea why, I've never done it before.
Finally, we moved on to balance, where you are walking on or vaulting over a railing. After this, people started to do their own thing, and I called it a day.
Overall, it was a pretty good experience. It actually made me feel both younger and older. Younger because I can still do these things, but older because once you move out of your early 20s I think you lose some natural athleticism. You can eat right and exercise but you can't turn back time. Nevertheless, it was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and I will probably do it again.
