A write up I did a few weeks back you might be interested in.
Its been a few weeks now since I completed an 8 mile catcrawl to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. Just finishing getting in a few more sponsors and the total raised is around 4,000 pounds. It feels like the whole event went a bit quick sitting here now, and it did.
The idea of doing something to raise money for Haiti came suddenly, mainly out of the frustration I felt talking to people about Haiti before I decided to act. People were quick to say I wish I could do something, Its awful, Someone should do something about it etc. This attitude of passing on problems and the delusion that you cant make a difference, or that it doesnt really matter because someone else will, is foreign and ridiculous to me. Yeah, chances are someone will act. A single action rarely makes a big difference, but a combination of people acting does. I wanted to first and foremost help the people of Haiti, but the thought that I could inspire other people to also get up a do something was always present in my mind, and helped keep me going on the day.
原帖地址: Aberdeen Parkour [Only Registered Users Can See LinksClick Here To Register]
I soon got to this idea of doing all you can, nothing more, nothing less. In a nation of plenty, its easy for people to get a warped idea of how far even small amounts of money can go. Just 2.50 can buy basic medical supplies for one person, with 10 being enough to provide a medical kit for an entire family. I noticed a kind of almost embarrassed attitude from people donating smaller amounts, almost not allowing themselves to recognise that the two pounds they donated could have potentially paid or contributed to save a life. This attitude is crippling aid efforts. I tried to make people understand this throughout the fundraiser. Because when you can save a life for the price of a sub of the day and you dont, things get fucked up.
So how the cat crawl came about was basically because I found myself being one of those people on the Saturday, 8 days before the crawl. Except I made the decision not to be one of the people making the excuses. I also want to point out now that although it was me that was crawling for Haiti, it was only thanks to a wealth of support from friends and family that I could have got to that point. People helping collect donations, raising awareness, collecting money in buckets on the day and supporting me mentally by keeping me motivated, crawling parts alongside me and staying by my side. Without these people I wouldnt have raised half as much.
On to the day, I got up like any normal day. I carbed up on pasta and chicken the night before, had some porridge and got ready to go. I hadnt had anytime to train, bar being a bit anxious it was just any other day. I spent the majority of the morning just sitting quietly listening to people speak, getting my mind far away from the crawl until the time came. Theres no use getting wound up and wasting energy at that point. I couldnt help be a little scared though, I previously completed a 3 mile crawl in 2008 and found it difficult to not think about how hard that was and how much of a toll it took on me physically and emotionally at only a fraction of the distance. I was thinking how at least that time I had a set distance, whereas due to the principle of doing all I could on the crawl , it was a case of I go until Im broken, any less and Im just talk and everything Id tried to prove up until that point was void.
Then it began,. Quarter past ten on Sunday 24th Jan 2010, I was off. The first portion of the crawl was mostly just physical, there was no real strain on my mind, my muscles were capable and so I carried on. I had my focus, friends and family behind me, so I quit pissing around and just got to it. Spirits were high and honestly, I just felt great. I completed the first mile with relative ease and was just about to take ten and stretch out my back but the first set of people coming to crawl with me had arrived. So I thought, while I can, while Im happy, crawl.. And keep on crawling until my body stops and brain melts.
People were more generous than we ever expected on the day. On the day of the crawl over 2000 was raised in bucket collection. What seemed to be most affecting to the people who donated was seeing me crawling, and seeing me struggle. Its so hard to comprehend the enormity and horror of a natural disaster like the Haitian earthquake. To see someone truly suffer even a fraction of the pain being experienced in Haiti, emotional and physical, was enough of a shock for the public to open their hearts and donate.
The second mile was again fairly manageable so straight on to the third. It wasnt really until the end of the third mile the entire thing got pretty real to me. I went to the toilet and realised I was struggling to use my hand to open doors and blow my nose. I kind of just sat and had a moment, my hands were getting pretty sorry looking and just taking some time to go to the toilet had stiffened my body up. I was asking myself how much is enough, how much can I really do and is it really enough in the end. I was thinking how all these people react if I can only get to 4miles? Is that letting people down? Letting myself down? And what about the people of Haiti? If crawling an extra length could save someone else, who am I to even consider stopping unless I truly am broken. I struggled on with this in mind. Just one more length, one more life. This was the idea at the forefront of my thoughts for the remainder of the crawl. This gave me the power to truly push on and crawl, keeping myself going knowing that every extra bit allowed me to do a bit more for the people of Haiti. The other reality was that I couldnt help thinking about how shit I was going to feel when the time came that I couldnt go on.
原帖地址: Aberdeen Parkour [Only Registered Users Can See LinksClick Here To Register]
By mile 5 the reality of stopping was kicking in I still had people alternating crawling with me and I cant express how much having Traceurs (people that practice Parkour) by my side helped. Everyone else was there for me, but it felt like only they really realised what I was doing. They helped me coordinate, watched my posture (which was awful) and basically kept me motivated. At the end of the 5th mile, the moment I was anticipating came. My Dad took me aside in the bathroom and told me that it was okay, everyone was proud, Id raised a big amount and that my mum was crying outside the bathroom. I cant imagine how my parents felt seeing me in the state I was in. My hands had no skin, I was limping, losing consciousness, unable to feel the rain (and some snow) that had been hitting my flesh for the past 6 hours because I had become so numb. I was a mess. People were pulling brave faces but I knew they were finding it hard to watch. I could imagine how it was to watch, but all I knew was what I felt. I brushed off what my Dad said, explained that my body was gone but my mind was stronger, went into the toilet and my heart broke. I likened my condition to those in Haiti devastated by the earthquake. I knew I had a warm place to live, food, water, clothes and luxuries that these people didnt. I felt selfish and weak. I felt that everyone knew, but kept strong for me, I was so grateful for this. Halfway through mile 7 it happened again. I just stopped, stayed still and curled up in a ball. My Dad crouched down to hug me and for the first time I vocalised to him that I didnt think I could go on, that I was broken, even the thought of giving up made my eyes well up and at that moment it was all too much. I had to get going again, I knew if I didnt start again then that it was all over. I finished the 7th mile and told everyone I was going to stop at 8.
Theres not much to say about mile 8. I was cold, tired, sore, semi-conscious and barely there anymore in my mind. At that point and for the last couple of hours of the crawl, my face was still overly swollen from all the blood that had pooled in my head. I could no longer hear what people were saying. It was like coming out a swimming pool and theres still water in your ears. All the people from the day crawled the final thousand or so feet with me. Ten hours after I had started and it was done. Not just done with the crawl, but I was generally just done. I broke down pretty badly. I hated myself for not being able to do more but was glad that I did all. I knew I could sleep soundly knowing that I really couldnt have done any more.
Looking back, it does make me sad that I see myself involved in three of the most talented communities in the world (Parkour, mixed martial arts and contemporary performance) and that the majority of the people within these communities are only interested in improving and satisfying themselves rather than thinking more outwardly. So many people could use their talents and creativity to impact the world around us and try to help other people sometimes, and not just themselves. Since the crawl I have received word of other people acting themselves after seeing what we did, a lot of questions about how it happened and came about. I guess the only real suit all answer I can give you, poor as it is, is that Im just a normal person, I did what I could and I hope you will too.
2nd Catcrawl write up 
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