Tomorrow I’ll be making my second attempt at climbing the entire Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). It’s for the SkyRise Chicago event benefitting RIC, where I did my rehab. It’s not at all necessary but if you feel like donating, click HERE for my contribution page.
Actually if you click on the main page for SkyRise Chicago, you can see a pic of me finishing last year. Kind of cool that they threw that up there. You can see how Rebecca is happy that I have finally finished, yet slightly afraid of my menacing warrior face. I let out a primitive “AHHHH!!!!” at the end like a professional weightlifter. Felt awesome! Walter, one of my main therapists, is behind me there, too.
Last year I had hoped to complete the entire tower but failed. I started at the bottom and barely made it to the 33rd floor without passing out. I had perhaps been overly optimistic (is there any other way to live???). 33 and 66 are the two rest areas. Rebecca and Walter had talked me into getting to at least 53 so that I could say I did over half of the 103 floors. But I had an idea. In a couple minutes I had talked them into taking me up to the other rest area at 66 so I could attempt to finish. After 5 hours and 15 minutes, I came to the top! Only 70 of the 103 floors, but at least I worked my heinder off and felt great.
That was a year ago. I had also not been really ready since Rebecca and I had just gotten married a week prior and then spent the rest of the time checking out Bourbon country, Asheville, NC, and Gatlinburg, TN, as a “mini-moon” (she insisted on calling it that so that we could go to Mexico in February!). This year, I hope to once again start at the bottom, but complete the whole thing in less than 4 hours. So here’s my math:
Last Year:
70 floor, 1400 steps, 5:15 hours
= 4.5 minutes per floor
This Year:
103 floors, 2109 steps, 4 hours
= 2 1/3 minutes per floor, 6.82 seconds per step
So that means I have to go about twice as fast as last year and complete 50% more of the tower. SURE LET’S DO IT! Ha!
My last practice climb didn’t go so hot but hopefully that was a fluke. I have been training in my 18-story apartment building. If I start on the 2nd floor by the laundry and go to the top, it is exactly 252 steps. Then I walk with one crutch and one hand on the wall to the elevator, go to the 2nd floor, and start over. My biggest training climb was 1400 steps, which is equivalent to the 70 floors I did at the event last year. I was way faster at about 2:15. The Willis Tower is harder, though. Higher steps and tons of people trying to pass me by the whole time. But I’m hopeful. Please say a prayer for me!
Some of my friends are climbing, too. Shannon, an upper level injury, is climbing for his 4th year. I can still only lift up my right leg which makes stairs tedious so he is way faster than me. Mark Stephan will probably beat us all again, doing it for his 5th or 6th year. He can’t even feel anything below his neck. What a champ. Rebecca and both of my parents are climbing as well, and Walter will be back in action, helping to make sure I don’t fall. Rebecca will fly up, basically. Her feet MIGHT hit the stairs. My dad claims to have done 105 floors up AND down in 22 minutes, but I am very skeptical. Still not, bad for 66 years old. My mom is walking up with me, titanium hip and all. All champs.
Prayers for everyone. Stay strong. Life is only as hard as we allow it to be. I need to remember that.
Happy November!
Chip
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