During the Christmas break when the Community center was closed for two weeks we ran the steps,walked the steps, we went up so many floors, came down stopped did push ups, then down some more floors then more push up. We tried different methods of me getting up the steps faster like skipping steps(which my legs were to short for that and it was much harder!). Rob would ask me to pick a floor number, I would say,"17" he would then pick a floor,"25". He would say,"Ok, we are not going to stop til we get to floor 17, we aren't going to run up to that floor but keep an nice steady pace til we reach that floor. Once we reach 17 we take a second to catch our breathe then we go straight again til 25." Crazy right?! The first time 'bout killed me and him both! But we did it. The key was to keep pushing using your arms in a pumping motion to push you on up the steps! When we reached the 25th floor we came back down the stairs backwards. This allowed for the stretching of our calf muscles. It was quite an experience.
This year the Urban Mountain Challenge was set up differently. Last year it was one building 29 floors 638 stairs. This year it was 50 stories, 2 building ( 5th 3rd bank building and the Central Bank building). This year they allowed teams, or an individual could run only one building (Central Bank at 22 floors), or an individual could run both buildings(50 floors). I opted to run one building! Next year I will maybe try for two :-)
As my daughter and Rob waited for me to complete the challenge on that VERY Cold Saturday morning at 8:30 am needless to say ALL the hard work that Rob and I put in, it paid off! I am so very PROUD to say on January 26,2013 I completed the Urban Mountain Challenge 1 tower climb in...
00:5:52.7!! That's 5 minutes and 52 seconds!!!
Yes sir! I cut my time in half! I couldn't believe it! I told myself, if you can climb 17 floors without stopping you can add 6 more and keep pushing through without stopping! If you want this then...MAKE IT HAPPEN!
The scary part was that it almost didn't happen! When it came time for me to register I ran into some financial issues that weren't going to allow me to participate. I was very disappointed and felt like I was going to let a lot of people down that had been supporting me via Facebook, work and friends and family. I posted on Facebook that I wasn't going to be able to participate and man you should have seen all the comments of, "oh no! why not?", "Oh, I'm sorry to read this I know how hard you were working for this." It broke my heart. Then, I get this message in my inbox from a very dear friend that as,'when the money was due? and how much was it?' I responded that the money was due January 23rd and it was $45. Another message came,"I will bring you the money tonight." I was shocked! My friend went on to explain how proud they were of me for what I had accomplished. They knew how much I wanted to do this and they wanted to make this happen for me. I was so humbled. I couldn't believe my little journey meant so much to someone else too. And not just this one person but to my dear friends all the way in Indiana!!! Yes, they even tried to surprise me by registering me online and getting the information from my daughter so they could do it because they knew if they told me they wanted to help I would say ,"no". Which is true. I don't think I could EVER say this enough but I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS EVER! So publicly I say THANK YOU dear friends I love you so very much for making my dream come true! I pray one day I may be placed in YOUR path to make YOUR dreams come true as well.
So, if you got some time you can go to http://www.3wayracing.com and check out my time for yourself(for the haters) and you can see a video clip of myself and others climbing the steps in the Urban Mountain Challenge! If not here are a few photos my daughter snapped as I waited in line to take My Challenge!
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| Took right before leaving the house to go to the UMC. Flash Lighting! |
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| Calling all numbers between 101-155. That's me #152 Side note: The guy next to me in the blue we talked the whole time about this challenge, another challenge and even doing a Mud Run! This was his first time. |
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| Say cheese mommy! |
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| Looking at the clock. I was suppose to go at 00: 8:38:00 |
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| Trainer Robert Martin aka Rob and I after the UMC "We Hard" |
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| Crazy "penitentiary" pose |
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| My certificate of completion 00:05:52.7 |
