It may seem a little crazy, but today I climbed to the top of one of the tallest skyscrapers in Seattle.....on purpose. *laugh* It was a charity event for the Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society,called The Big Climb - 69 flights of stairs, a total of 1,311 steps to fight blood cancers. I didn't think I was going to make it, but I did!
For the last several weeks, I have been down sick with a cold/flu thing that has been kicking my butt, so I haven't had any opportunity to prepare for this. I almost didn't go. I thought my start time was at noon, and I almost didn't wake up in time. When I did finally get up, and get moving, I was trying to figure out how to reach them to let them know I couldn't make it.
Then I decided to at least go down there, and talk to them. I have people who have sponsored me, and while I'm sure they would understand, I'd like to at least check in, turn over the sponsorship funds, etc. My start time got moved to 2 o'clock (and later 2:30pm), so I had time. By the time I got downtown, I was actually feeling pretty decent. I thought about asking whether I could just do part of it, and then bail when I couldn't handle it anymore. It probably would have been fine; I'm sure I could have taken off at any of the water stations if I needed to.
Downtown Seattle always makes me crazy when I'm driving. The directions I had took me in the wrong direction. I ended up totally lost, however, I'm headed to the tallest building in Seattle, so despite the lack of good directions, it wasn't hard to spot my destination. It's just a matter of getting there, given the number of one-way streets around. I finally located it, and got directions to the parking garage (which long way around turned out to be across the street).
Check in was on the 1st floor, which is 3 floors down from ground level. There were tons of people there.
Over 5,000 people were scheduled to climb today - with start times ranging from 8:30am to 3:15pm. Due to some mix-ups on the list, I ended up in the 2:30pm group, which was fine with me. Got my t-shirt, and goodie bag. Checked my stuff at the Bag Check so I didn't have to cart it up the stairwell, and got in line.
At the last minute, I ran back to the Bagel stand and grabbed a little something for the road. *laugh* In a nice orderly procession, much to my amusement, they led us up the escalators to the ground floor. We're here to climb sixty-nine flights of stairs, and they're taking us up an escalator? Irony.
They led the participants in front of a sign, took our photographs, and then staged each climber about 5 seconds apart. By the time I reached the first step, it was about 2:34pm. I had done some practice in the past on the stair climber, and thought I would do fairly well for the first 20 floors or so, as that's about how long I had been working out.
It seemed a reasonable hypothesus......however inaccurate it turned out to be. After three or four floors, I was ready to die. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I had to stop to rest. I bit into the bagel, thankful for an excuse to stop. Three floors? Oh my god. Only sixty-six to go. What have I gotten myself into? I finally caught my breath, and made it up a few more floors. Again I rested, and watched the parade of climbers behind me pass me by. Fifth floor, eighth floor, twelfth floor - I was the only one who seemed to need a break. Another bite of bagel to pass the time.
Agile young teenagers bounded past me two steps at a time, their lithe bodies in motion seemed a blur and in a second or two they were gone. I leaned against the wall,
and made a mental note about the sign that said there was an emergency intercom every fifth floor. Somewhere around the 20th floor, I hit the first water station. They were out of cups. She offered to squirt the water in my mouth, but ended up giving me a bath instead. By then, I was alone. All the members of my group had long since passed, and the next group hadn't reached me yet.
Oddly enough, my legs didn't ache at all. I felt no body pain at all - other than my heart pounding in my chest. I can remember being 250 lbs, barely able to climb two flights of stairs without hearing my knees creaking. If I could just catch my breath, I'd be fine. I stopped for a minute or two here and there, and then kept going. The rest of the water stations had cups, for which I was grateful.
Along the way were little signs, factoids about cancer and the climb. The oldest participant was 83 years old. Over 5,000 people were registered to climb today. Of those, 52% were women and 48% were men. The average age was early 30's. (32, I believe). The number of people making it to the five year mark after treatment has tripled in the last ten years. That's truly remarkable. I've known a number of people who've had cancer, and most were not so lucky. But most of those were a long time ago, so it's great to see that progress has been made.
And then at 2:52pm, I reached a big bold, sign in all caps that read "HALF-WAY POINT". Hallelujah! Somehow I'd made 34 1/2 flights so far. I sent a text message to my boyfriend to celebrate! By then,
I was being joined in the alcoves by other climbers needing a rest. Even the buff young athletes were moving slowly, dripping in sweat and reaching for that cup of water with relief. Of course - these were the ones from the 2:45pm group who'd made it up 34 1/2 flights of stairs in SEVEN MINUTES.
God what I wouldn't give to be young again, full of energy, with a body that could do whatever I asked of it. What am I saying? I never had that. When I was their age, I was able to walk and bike, but running or climbing stairs would have been out of the question. I'm thankful to have the ability now though, even if it does take me eighteen minutes instead of seven. By the time I reached the last water station, I was in a pattern - two flights, rest, two flights rest. I didn't need much time - just enough to get some oxygen before I started again.
Then the count down began - ten more flights, nine, eight, seven - I could feel my lungs expanding trying to take in more air so I wouldn't have to stop. "We Are The Champions" by Queen began echoing down the stairwell, and I could tell I was close. One flight shy of the top, I stopped and had my picture taken. And then I made it. As people exited the stairs, others who'd already made it cheered and a picture was snapped of the moment when we crossed the finish line.
The top of the tower doesn't have much - it's mostly an exterior hallway leading to the broadcast room for the traffic control room. These are the people who keep track of where the accidents are, what's causing slow downs, and why you should take I-90 today instead of 520. Lining the hall were many tired and happy people, leaning on the windows, parked against the walls, perched on table tops, walking restlessly around, sipping water and taking photos.
Two stairwells were in use today - one for climbers like me, and another for racers who were being timed. I ran into them accidentally while looking for the bathroom. A big trashbin of cut bracelets was leaning against a wall, and a group of people with a bell were there to greet people as they emerged - tap the timer to complete their race, cut the bracelet and congratulate them. The fastest racer had done it in seven minutes. That's ten floors a minute!
A week ago, Firefighters from around the country met here to do the same climb, in full gear. There were 1100 men and a hundred women that day. One of our homeboys from Redmond won last week with a time just under twelve minutes. If I'm ever in a burning skyscraper, I want it to be in Redmond!! (Except - I don't think there ARE any skyscrapers in Redmond. I think the tallest building I've seen there is maybe 6 flights.)
While I'll never be able to match those kind of times, it was a feat for me to even attempt something like this, and I'm happy I did it. They ask each participant to raise $150, and I think I've got about $350 so far. Donations are due by April 4th, so I have a little time to collect it. If you're interested in sponsoring me as well, let me know - I can send you the link to my page.
Wonder if I'll still be able to do things like this when *I* am 83? I hope so!
--BT
