For me, stair-climb training season began all the way back in August. I took a 5 month break after I completed the Fight For Air Climb-Chicago stair-climb last March. It was a needed break. I started running more and more, and I became quite a bit faster at running. Additionally, I was running about 20 miles per week at the peak.
When I started stair-climbing again in August, I was stair-climbing between 2-3 times a week while running about 19 miles per week. I kept this up until October when my body said, “that’s it. I’m done.” After climbing the Sears Tower in November and running a 10k the next weekend, I had to take about 5 days off before I could get back into running or stair-climbing. Since then, my training has been very lackluster. I’ve been very apathetic going into runs and climbs, and motivation has been hard as of late. I dropped my mileage base down to 12 miles per week, then to 10, and now to 8. To be fair though, as of late, the frequency and intensity of my training climbs has also increased. All this to say, I did about 3487 floors worth of stairs to get to Sears (in 83 days). I did an additional 2116 floors to get to the Aon Center (in 84 days). If you notice the difference, like I said, training has been tough lately.
Today was the day that I climbed the Aon Center in Chicago. I wrote a nice little status about it on Facebook in which I said:
Tomorrow, I will look up at the building I am about to climb and will be filled with doubt. At the same time, I will be filled with faith and belief. Hours of training will come down to less than 25 minutes in that stairwell. There will be sweat, moments of doubt, moments of breathlessness, great grit and determination. At the end, as I spill into the top floor, I will be breathing hard and perhaps coughing spectacularly while clambering for rest.
Then, I will see that view and know—-it was all worth it.
My mom and I took the train into Chicago, and along the way, it started raining/sleeting/snowing. As we got out of Union Station, I looked up, and I found that the tops of the tall buildings were cloud covered. I knew this meant there would be no spectacular view. Good thing I don’t just do it for the view!! (I just found that especially ironic considering the status I wrote yesterday.)
We found the building very easily thanks to a friendly taxi driver. Once we were there, I did wonder if I was in the right place to enter because there was no one around. I did however see a bunch of elites ready to get started, and I knew that the right entrance had to be near.
After that, things went very smoothly. I had gotten to the Aon Center at about 8 am, due to train schedules, and I had about an hour before I would need to climb. I was able to quickly pick up my packet. Same day packet pick-ups are always very much appreciated for stair-climbs!!! The gear check was also very well set up, and for the first time ever, I decided to check my gear rather than have my mom hold on to it. (My mom was not feeling very well but had still wanted to come. This gave her less responsibility which I think she appreciated.)
Then it was the time for the wait. I hate waiting to climb. Hate it. This time, however, went by very quickly. The race at the beginning was running almost early, and so I actually got to start before my start time! Yay!
The people in line were very friendly and willing to talk. I normally don’t talk at stair climbs once I’m lined up, but because I had no idea what to mentally expect, I decided to not waste my time on mental prep. Instead, I chatted with a couple people in line about how we got into stair-climbing and what climbs we have done before. It was very pleasant.
Once I was into the stair-well, I went for it, trying to double-step the whole way. I felt that my technique was pretty solid, but once I got floor 13, my quads were killing me. I decided to try to do every 10 floors or so as a double-step and then go back to single step. It seemed to actually help me.
I had a time goal of 20 minutes. I had figured out where I should be with music by the time I hit floor 40, but then my music got messed up by me not locking it right away. I hit floor 40 during that song, but I didn’t know if I was actually on pace to finish in 20 minutes. I decided to not stress about it and just focus on finishing strongly.
I took water one time in the stairwell because my lungs were burning. I still want to get to a place where I don’t need to take it at all. What did go better this time though was that I did not stop for longer than 5 seconds due to water. They had the volunteers to hand out water in the stairwell versus how Sears was set up in November (with tables on floors with no volunteers handing them to you). It was very much appreciated!
Once I hit floor 43, I started to mentally break. I called stair-climbing stupid, asked why I kept doing this to myself, why I had to do 3 more after this one. I decided in that moment to do something I never do for stair-climbing which is countdown. I do this when I run on the track because that too tries to mentally break me. I counted down from 37, and that made each floor seem faster. Once I hit floor 76, I pushed it all that I could, went back to the double-stepping again, and finished strong.
As I spilled out onto the 80th floor, it was confirmed that there was no view…only clouds. I grabbed water and went to sit and cough. I tried to get up after about 3 minutes and got more water, and I felt like I was going to die…so it was back to the floor I went for a few more minutes. At the top, they had solid food choices. They had SmartPop which I thought was weird, but I decided that I wanted it. Turns out it was a good choice. The salt in it instantly gave me back a boost of energy. I also saw one of the people that I was in line with at the top. He didn’t mess up his timing (unlike me…but he told me that he had done the same thing at Sears in November), and he had actually beaten the time he wanted. Awesome.
After wandering around for a couple minutes (and eating a cookie), I decided to head down because being in a cloud is not as cool as it seems. The line to pick up the gear was a little long, but the volunteers handled it well. I was really glad too that I had climbed earlier as the line to climb had grown significantly long. Glad the timing worked out for this one!
I just found out my time too. Ready for this?
19:55.
This is pretty much the time I wanted but didn’t expect due to training issues. I’m really grateful that it did work out!!!
Official time: 19:55
Overall Place: 396/2004
Next up is the Fight for Air Climb: Oakbrook Terrace on February 8! That’s in 2 weeks! There, I’ll be climbing 31 floors (680 steps) three times for the “Ultimate Climb.” I figure it’s a good warm-up race to Presidential Towers on March 8. Ah, stair-climb season. So short yet so hard.
Still Too Early to Quit 