I had no expectation nor goals. I just wanted to climb to the top of the Willis Tower without stopping the entire 103 floors. C signed me up as his firm is a big donator to the RIC (my dad had done rehab there years back and it was a wonderful place...like that connection). This was C's 4th time climbing the tower and after years of saying no I finally agreed. Each group/person gets a start time. Our group was slotted in the 8:30am start time. So, with the help of daylight savings, we woke up super early, dropped the kids off in the city at grandma's house and headed back downtown. We checked in our gear, met us with C's co-workers and waited in the 8:30 start line for about 15 minutes. When you reach the start line, each person is allowed a 7 second gap in between. Again, I had no goals other than to just try my hardest and not stop.
I started ahead of C. Slower walkers are to stay to the right and faster to the left. I ended up staying on the right and then passing on the left. It went quicker than I thought. You felt it right away though, after about 4 flights I knew this was going to be work, but it was a consistent feeling. I didn't jog up the stairs unless I was passing. I finally caught up to C around maybe the 70th floor and I was able to stay with him. We finished together only he had some seconds on me as he started behind me.
I was very pleased with my 23:51 finish (C predicted a 27 min finish for me!). I ended up placing 14th in my age 30-39 age group out of lots of women! It was fun and I will do it again next year! It was very different from running so it was a nice change up....although I prefer running.
C and I treated ourselves to a yummy breakfast at Julius Meinl! I had peanut butter and banana crepes with nutella spread - and the coffee is so good there!
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