12 Foot Jump

This past Sunday, Becca and I went to Cherokee Park to hike and explore. It was a beautiful, sunny day. We drove around a bit to find some paths we hadn't been on yet. We found a nice set of paths connecting two of the park's larger fields. There's a beautiful, wide stream running through the park. A couple of big wooden bridges cross the stream and its tributaries. We hiked near the stream a lot of the time, for the view.

I took advantage of the terrain whenever possible for free running. I had no sense of hesitation, even when there were a lot of people around (such as in the main field area at the top of the park). This is one of the great things about free running. The more you do it, the more it becomes natural, easy, and socially comfortable. I jumped over and onto some low walls, and the moment I saw a nice climbing tree, I immediately climbed to the top.

Near one of the bridges on the paths, there was a wide gap in the land created by one of the stream's tributaries. I jumped from the lower side across a five-foot gap, and ran up the muddy surface of the higher side on some rocks that were jutting out of it. Standing there and looking down, I realized that this would be a perfect challenge for me. By perfect, I mean it felt like it would be right at the limit of where I'm at right now in my free-running. It was about 9 feet across and a 5 foot drop, or about 12 feet from where I'd be jumping off to where I'd be landing.

I called Becca over so she could watch. She had walked around to go across one of the bridges. I was thinking that I would take a moment, guage it, maybe even make a practice run to the edge, then jump, but instead I decided to just do it. I got about 10 feet from the edge, ran, and jumped. The ground where I hit was muddy and sloped. The moment my feet hit, they slid out from under me. I caught myself on my hands, but my forehead still touched the earth just enough to get a little muddy (not enough to hurt). The impact was hard on my left foot (due to the terrain not being even), but I shook it off and it barely bothered me at all during our hiking and my subsequent jumps.

A little later, I found a good seven foot gap in the land with even-height walls to jump straight across. It was a clean jump with a great landing. The way I landed from this jump is how I usually land: I simply bend my knees as I land, letting my leg muscles absorb the shock. The harder the landing, the further they bend, often getting my butt close to the back of my shoes on big jumps. I can immediately stand and continue moving after a nice landing like that.