Dan Chew's Endurance Stepclimbing Challenge

Cathedral of Learning-Dec 26th
Can you think of a better way to start the day after Xmas than by setting the alarm for 4AM, and heading to the Cathedral of Learning for a 6AM start, and begin climbing the sauna-like, dusty, stale air filled stairwell? Yeah, me neither.

So, Dan has been doing this for years (see his website for climbing records set, etc) , and recently a local untrarunner woman set a new record for the most consecutive climbs up the 36 flights of stairs. She finished 103 in 24 hours. A counterchallenge was arranged!

I saw the note about the challenge and was somewhat interested in the woman's new record and had fleeting thoughts of actually seeing how close I could get to her number. That thought went in and out of my head multiple times, often leaving as quickly as it would show up! The kicker was I just was not in the mind set to pull an all nighter for this right now & without doing that there of course no way to even come close to doing anything than just a long day of exercise.

I tell Dan I am in for the 6AM start, but I am just going to go for a good part of the day at my own pace, and not setting any goals for trying to get a record number of climbs. To myself, I am figuring about 20X would pretty much tire me out & be a good day of exercise! He replies that if I can get in anything more than 40X, I will actually be in a second place to the ultrarunner, as she initially only had 40X and so far no other women have done even that many (I don't qualify for the Rookie record, as I have actually been on the steps a few times in my life.....darn! I recently went there just a few times and at the most did a stretch of 8 climbs just for an evening of exercise, no record ideas in mind). Ok, I agree.......I am in to do just over 40X. Still in the back of my head was a dirty plan to see what my hourly pace was, and if good enough maybe consider to just keep going.

JP has absolutely NO intention of heading down to the start with me, as he HATES early mornings and plus it's quite a drive from our house. I get up and get going, planning on he will show up sometime during the late morning and do a few climbs with me. I get there along with Jon Pratt, we both get a few minutes late start, but before you know it we all run into each other and the party is ON! Along with Dan is his nephew and a few triathlete friends, 5 of us total, and lots of others come and go during the day.

The 36th floor is our functional transition area, with us each having a pile of boxes, bags, coolers, shoes, etc out for easy grabbing. The guys have family close by and during the day have some planned support to show up. I just have what I brought and JP for any emergencies, but he wasn't going to be around all day, but really I don't like too much help so this is ok.

The guys are setting fast paces, I try to keep mine toned back instead of worrying what they are doing so I end up doing several sets alone & a few with someone or other. After about 3 hours I start to feel settled in to a pace, but surprisingly my avg remains the same....5X/hour. This continues, until hour 6. I hit a accidental bout of dehydration with completely no sweating, along with some soreness was already beginning in various areas! I had been drinking, and more liquid felt just bloating so I just had to back off a little for one hour. That hour was the only one out of my total 9hrs that I dipped below my avg and got only 4X in. After that, I picked back up, although feet/knees/etc were taking a toll already.

Hour 6 and climbs 30-34 were the rough ones, JP was there making fun of my dwindling pace. He quickly stated he would see me around and took off to run with the guys. Cool, now I can have some peace and quiet:-) At this point I also ditched the tennis shoes and put on comfy fur lined crocs...not the easiest to walk in but sure nicer to my bunion feet!

Climbs 35-40 I got back onto 5X/hr, and at 40 of course felt SO relieved that it could almost be over. I still had fleeting thoughts of staying, as if you realize I could keep the pace even for just 3 more hours and then dropped to 4X/hr, I would have beat the women's current record! But it still kept nagging at me that I didn't want to have to recover from an all-nighter or be so sore I couldn't walk the next day! And I didn't want JP to spend what turned out a pretty nice day hanging around the cathedral being bored! Before he left, he brought me some extra food just in case, and I finished out another 3X just to be above the current 2nd place number, with total climbing time of 9hrs. Then it was time to sadly call it quits. I packed up & watched with envy as all the other 6AM starters were valiantly still going. Turns out they set some new records overall too!

I am pretty sure that next year, if not before then, I will be up to challenge the current womens consecutive climbs in 24 hours!! It's on my list of things to do.....maybe.