Stair Climb 2012 Epilogue

It seems like only yesterday that Brian and I were in Seattle for the Fire Fighter Stair Climb.  While I was not successful in my climb, Brian completed the challenge and made it to the top of the Columbia Tower.

Together Brian and I raised nearly $12,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  Our personal thanks goes out to our sponsors, and friends who donated and supported our efforts.  Brian is currently in 9th place and I am in 4th place for donations for the event.  This is an unbelievable level of support and we just can't thank everyone enough. 

Brian was successful in his climb and he did carry the photos of all our honorees as well as a list of our sponsors to the top.

It has been two weeks since we returned and I have gotten an tremendous amount of support from friends, family and sponsors regarding my effort.  I have also gotten some negative comments regarding my failure to finish the climb.  (All from people who weren't sponsors)

I have spent the past two weeks reviewing and thinking about what went wrong.  At first I was concerned that some unknown health issue had prevented me from completing the climb.  This has been ruled out.

I know now that were several issues which likely combined to create a perfect storm that prevented me from completing the climb.

First, I mostly likely started much too fast.  The excitement and energy of everyone at the start was significant and I am sure I looked like a sprinter on the first 5 floors.  Second, I used the handrails to help pull myself up the stairs.  A great idea in theory but likely mistake number two.   Brian pointed out later that day that if I hadn't trained using the handrails then I likely doubled my cardio requirement by pulling myself along.  Third, I felt horrible just before the climb, I put it off as nerves but by the 5th floor I was in trouble; breathing much harder than I should have been.  The third and likely most costly mistake I discovered when I returned home.  It is likely that in the rush of getting up early to get to the event location I mistakenly took a double dose of my blood pressure medicine.  This increased dosage would have limited my pulse and reduced stamina.  I was breathing harder as my legs screamed for more oxygen but the double dose of medicine wasn't allowing my body to move nearly enough blood.  The end result was that I was unable to clear the rapid lactic acid build up in my legs and it was only a matter of time before I couldn't lift them anymore.  My Dr. tells me he was surprised that I made it as high as I did.

Now that I have a better understanding of what happened I can concentrate on moving forward.

I have decided to continue training and I plan to return to Seattle in 2013 and finish the climb.

Thank you for all your support these past months.  I will continue to update this training blog on a weekly basis for the next several months.

See you at the Top!

John