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CN Tower
April 27, 2007
After weeks of anticipation, yesterday was finally the day for the WWF CN Tower Climb. A few weeks ago I was very uncertain whether I'd even be able to attempt this given that I had a troublesome calf muscle strain, but some good rest and ART were enough to get me healed up and ready for the challenge. Because of the strain I wasn't able to do any real training for the event other than the weekly long runs that I've been doing for the upcoming half marathon.
It was a long drive to the tower, and then an hour and a half wait standing in line, so there was lots of opportunity to get anxious. As we walked by the tower for the last time before heading into the building it finally started to sink in what we were about to do. It was quite misty which made the distance look even more formidable!
It was a little startling after waiting for so long that after going through the security check there was very little time to gather yourself. You walk around a curve, go through a door, and wham, you're right there at the bottom of the stairs. With the beep of your timing chip, you're off.
If it's your first time doing this, your mind and body can't truly appreciate what you're about to do. (Even with all the anticipation) It doesn't take long, maybe 30 seconds, for all of that to change. I started out fairly fast, which is always dangerous. I was alternating jogging up two steps at a time, then one step at a time. There are lots of people in the stair well, and if you're trying for your best time, it's a bit hectic trying to pass people. It's sort of like the 401: The left side is supposed to be the passing lane, but it doesn't work out quite that simply. You end up having to shout "Passing on the left!" quite often, and when you're huffing and puffing it takes a lot of effort to shout!
The hand rails are a huge help... thank goodness for them. Every few flights, for some reason, the hand rail on the right side had a break in it. You're looking downward and so when you go to grab it you're thrown off by getting nothing but air.
Flight 50 of 144: By now you understand the full reality of what is going on. You're working very hard, you're breathing as hard as you can, you've got that "bloody taste" in the back of your throat, and you're just trying to stay focused, not letting your mind think about how far you have left to go. At this point there were far fewer people, I'm not sure why, so it was becoming less and less frequent that I would pass anyone.
Flight 90 of 144: Unbelievable. This is where I started to think, "Yeah, this is definitely the first and last time I do this"! At least, I don't expect I'll ever try to do it in my best time again. It is grueling, and there really isn't anything that can prepare you for that kind of test of your will. By flight 100 my legs were getting rubbery and my mind was starting to get desperate. I expect that people that are lost and haven't eaten in a few days get that sort of hard, wild, desperate look in their eyes. This is where your body has gone as far and further than you should ever expect it to go and yet you keep cracking the whip. My heart rate for the entire ascent was pegged at 192 bpm, which is 94% of my max heart rate.
As I climbed past 100, 110, the sense of desperation started to be softened ever so slightly by the realization that, despite the overwhelming discomfort, the end was getting closer. I never felt tempted to stop, but that is because I knew that stopping now wouldn't help in the long run... it would be just as hard to start again. So I continued forward and upward, still varying the single step flights with the smooth double step flights. With ten flights to go I said, "Ok, I'm going to give it everything I've got and do double steps for these last ten". But after two flights my legs said, "Haha, no way". I was one cooked turkey.
Passing the exit point was a good feeling, but if I only I knew: You round the corner, and are greeted by another flight of stairs. When you get to the top, it says "S1" and there is another flight of stairs. At this point you're thinking, "Ok ok, there are just a couple flights of stairs up to the observation deck". But then there is S3, S4, S5. By that point you're body, already at its breaking point, is ready to collapse. Because you've passed the finish line, you have mentally "let go", and your body follows suit. S6, S7... I started to shout: "HOW CLOSE ARE WE"? I panicked that there might be 20 more flights of stairs. I was confused, at my wits end. S8, S9, and finally, S10 and the observation deck.
People were standing there cheering as people made it to the top. I was in no mood for smiles or cheers, or anything else. My eyes darted around for the water station: It was madness: Everyone was standing there with water, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. I walked around the observation deck, mildly delirious, ready to collapse. There was no water. I had to lay down, I absolutely had to lay down, so in my usual "Daniel style" I found a quiet corner and layed flat on my back.
You would think that climbing the tower was the hard part, and I guess it was, but the next 20 minutes were pretty rough too. My stomach was very turbulent and my whole body felt like it was toxic... my guess is that it was the deluge of lactic acid that my body was hopelessly trying to deal with. I was taken back to the trip that my sisters and I did to Europe: One morning I woke up feeling not myself, and as we boarded a crowded passenger train, I began to feel dizzy and nauseous. The air on the train felt thick, heavy, depleted of oxygen, and I had to concentrate as hard as I could to stay upright and to not throw up. It was a very similar feeling in the observation deck: The air was hot, moist, and with everyone trying to recover from their oxygen deficit, very depleted. And so this feeling of toxic sickness and extreme fatigue had me pinned to the floor for several minutes, breathing very heavily, trying to control my stomach discomfort.
I finally decided that getting up and finding some water was probably the best thing for me, so I struggled to my feet and staggered around bumping into people. It was like a bad dream: Again, the feeling that everyone had water, and it was this cruel joke because there wasn't any to be found. I finally said "WHERE'S THE WATER?" in a loud voice, hoping someone next to me would hear over the extremely loud noise of the crowd. A guy motioned to the far end, around at the other side of the deck. There it was, finally!
I curled up on the floor again, and it was another 15 minutes before I could stand up. I was amazed that I was the only one in such a bad condition at the top. It seemed that everyone else, after two or three minutes, was all smiles, giving high fives, laughing, cheering, etc. But not me! Whoa man!
25 minutes after getting to the top, we had made it down the elevator and stepped off at the main floor. Again, I was taken back to Europe, reminded what it was like to take that first breath of fresh air after getting off of the train. It was beautiful. My body said a big thank you and my spirits lifted.
From there we were able to snag some free pizza and headed back to the registration tables to pick up our T-shirts. Each shirt has your time written on the back of it with a permanent marker, so there is that moment of uncertainty when you hand them your wrist band and wait for the result. 15:27, not bad. A great reward for all of the effort. (Can I believe that the world record is 7:00? What?!)
This morning I feel like I'm getting over bronchitis. I'm not sure why, maybe it's from breathing 1000 other people's germs yesterday, along with a depressed immune system. I'm sure I'll bounce back over the next day or two. It's funny how even an hour after doing something crazy like that, your mind starts to soften the memory and you think "Ok, so it wasn't all that bad". But it was extreme enough that I don't think I'll ever forget it. This was most definitely an adventure worth having, a very rich experience, but whoa man, be ready for a real wallop!
The next time I visit the tower I think I'll take the elevator :)
Apr28-07 update: The results have been posted, and our team placed 20th out of 327 teams! Go team! I was 125th place in idividuals. The top time was 11:09. Wow!
Pictures taken by the event staff are here.
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FurnitureApril 20, 2007
It has been about three months now since we moved into our new home, and yet our living room, almost half of the main level, is still empty! We ordered a sectional and a few other things from Lay-Z-Boy back in February, but since we chose a color of leather that would match our chair, that means they can't just pull it off the shelf. This week we got a surprise phone call saying everything was in stock and ready to be delivered. We couldn't believe it, since we were originally warned that we'd have to wait until mid-to-late May! Well, we got another phone call last night saying "Whoops, we don't actually have your sectional, so it will be a couple more weeks". Ahh! Oh well. That disappointment was offset yesterday by the delivery of our bedroom furniture. (You know you're starting to grow up when you do a happy dance at the sight of a furniture truck!) 20 books in a yearApril 12, 2007
1 year after I embarked on the adventure, I have finished reading my 20th book. For the slow reader I am, this was quite the undertaking, but a very enjoyable one! Here's the final list: Short History of Nearly Everything, Night, A Million Little Pieces, Blood Brothers, Learning PHP 5, Deception Point, Generous Orthodoxy, Poisonwood Bible, Kite Runner, From The Ground Up, Riding Rockets, Lance Armstrong's War, Istanbul, Reaching for the Invisible God, Life is a Journey, Running Room Half Marathon Clinic Manual, The Prophet, Mere Christianity, The Four Loves, and Suprised by JoyThis worked out to be 5,998 pages. Cute :) older >>
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