Staircase Challenge

It used to be that when people at work would tell me about doing the stairs, basement to roof, for exercise, I'd look at them like they'd grown three heads.   In my former state, I couldn't have even imagined going up to my desk (at the time located on the fourth floor), much less going all the way from the basement to the roof...that was fourteen and a half floors for crying out loud.  In fact, one day I was home sick from work and heard from a friend that the elevators weren't working.  I sighed in relief because at the time, I had no idea what I would have done had I been in the office that day.  That friends, is a problem...when your physical being has the potential of holding you back from doing something critical, like your job.  Thank goodness I've been delivered from that!

That being said, when Dana challenged Rick and I to join he and his group doing the stairs as part of a workout, I was hesitant.  I figured that I was able, and I've pretty much conquered my much documented (at least on this blog) fear of stairs, but fourteen and a half flights seemed daunting.  But, like any writer, I figured it would give me some material and I also had the itching curiosity to see if I could do it.  And God bless Rick, he said he'd do it too.

Dana, Rick, James and I headed out of the gym and to the first set and a half of stairs... the ones from the gym to the first floor  No problem.  I've done these stairs a bunch in the year and a half I've had of conquering my fear of stairs.   When I first began, my trainer would hold my hand going up and down the first five of them, and now I scaled them easily.  One and a half down right? This should be no problem.

Down the hall we went and over to the back stair case. Okay this stairwell was narrower and might I mention hot.  But no worries, I had my water bottle with me.   Up we went from one to two, and then from two to three, and then from three to four.  Woo hoo!  First hurdle cleared: I was officially past the point of being scared I couldn't get to where my old desk was on the fourth floor.   Jubilation! Elation! I'm Rocky running up the stairs...

Until floor five.  I could hear Dana and James way above Rick and I, and Rick was a good flight ahead of me.  And that was when it felt like the air was beginning to run out.   "Why is it so stifling in here?" I asked Rick.  "Well there's no a/c in here and less air in case of fire" he replied.  Okay...so one more element to this challenge.

Up one more flight of stairs to six.  Ah, just beyond that stairwell door was my lovely desk with it's air condition and cushioned chair.  It was tempting but I kept going.  On to seven.  Okay, the sweat was running down my back and I had to stop a minute for some water. 

Floor eight.  Calves are burning, air is stifling, Dana and James were out of sight but Rick was right ahead of me and for that I kept going.  On up to nine and the realization came that on each floor was an exit door that led to a hallway with an elevator that would end all of this craziness if I chose. I looked longingly at the door but Rick was just ahead of me still going and I was determined.

Floor ten.  I used to sit on floor ten and quite frankly I thought the elevator ride up to it was pretty long. I used to hope and pray that we didn't have a fire drill during the time my desk was there because I didn't want to endure going down ten floors, much less the climb up. Dana and James passed on their way down and I had to give Dana his props at being the harder "trainer" for the day. And up again I went.

On to the eleventh.  I start imagining dying on the stairs outside eleven.  Millie sits on this floor. Would she find my lifeless body at the base of the stairs?  I could almost hear the call over the intercom, "Emergency Response Team to the stairwell.  Repeat, ERT to the stairwell." 

Telling myself I was being dramatic again, I climbed up to twelve, and then finally to thirteen...the roof and the end of the climb.  Rick and I paused for a second to catch our breathe and grin at each other.  Up until this moment, we'd doubted ourselves with each step.  Now we just had to get back down.

The return trip was a heck of a lot easier, and we could even carry on a conversation with each other during the descent.  Soon we were back in the gym and even managed to get on not only the elliptical but the treadmill too to finish our workout.

As we were stretching out and cooling down, I looked at Rick and said, "I can't believe we just did that!  That was awesome!  We need to do that once a week!"

"Okay..." Rick said, "But I'm only doing it once a week."

No argument out of me there buddy.