parkour

I was never a great traceur, but what I lacked in strength, stamina, speed, or agility, I made up for in enthusiasm and what, in retrospect, I can only call something less than the correct amount of self-preservation instinct.

My friend, on the other hand, was great at it. He is now an active rock-climber. And he has brought to my attention the fact that there is a now a name for what we used to do namelessly.

We didn't call it "parkour" and we didn't call ourselves "traceurs" ... for those names to come along, someone in France had to organize it, and someone in Russia had to popularize it. Still, it's essentially the same thing: urban gymnastics.

Here's what I'm talking about: