One Mile Rail Balance Challenge for Mental Health

A Fundraiser to Support Specialized Mental Health and Parkour Programming

Balancing on a rail is symbolic of the physical struggles that we face in our day-to-day lives. It is a call to action for the parkour community to question the ethos of “être fort pour être utile,” meaning “being strong to be useful.” How do we bring strength into our practice? And how do we share our strength in contributing to the world?

Partnering with Soul Parkour (ParkourONE) of Germany and Free Your Instinct of the United Kingdom, David Banks of Ukemi planned an attempt to be the first person to complete balancing a marathon (26.2 miles / 42.2 kilometers) across a rail. The fundraiser would help to provide parkour programming for mental health and specialized support. He was unfortunately hurt with an unrelated injury preventing him from tackling the challenge.

Across the world, over two dozen athletes stepped up to donate a mile – balancing across a rail. Each individual planned out their routes just days before to ensure completion of a marathon on April 21st, 2020. In this video, Alan Tran shares his experience balancing a mile across a rail.

“I immediately jumped on board to support David Banks on this incredible project. Mental health is just as important as our physical health for our overall well-being. As for the challenge, rail balance plays a large role in my personal practice. This time around, I worked on an empty stomach with a little caffeine making it a bit difficult in terms of focus. I chose this particular rail for its privacy during the current coronavirus pause. The length was roughly 82-85ft; leading to about 65 repetitions. The end of the rail had an unstable and insecure section that made pivoting around pretty tough. Originally I had planned to repeat the entirety of the mile if I lost balance, the unstable section had me reconsider. All-in-all, I lost balance about six times over the course of about a hundred minutes. Thanks to David Banks, Free Your Instinct, and Soul Parkour. A shout-out to the athletes contributing to a special program aiding those needing mental health support.” – Alan Tran