Trek Up the Tower 2009 - Race Report

Ow.

My lungs and throat hurt. I vaguely remember this from last year. I coughed for about 2 days after running up 40 flights of stairs. I paid kind of an absurd ammount of money to go through that torture so I guess I shouldn't complain.

My check in time was 8 am. This year I knew what to expect. I got there a bit early, checked in, stripped down to my shorts and tank, checked my bag, and got right in line. Nobody really cares what time your check in is and you pretty much can start whenever you get to the front of the really long line. I stood in line and got to the front about 8:30. I swiped the chip on my wrist over the mat on the table and I was off.

I'd like to preface by saying I have had a cold all week long. I started to get it last Sunday and was stuffy all week. I started feeling better Thursday night/Friday day and really felt ok, other then the residual gunk this morning. I climbed fast right off of floor one, skipping steps, using the railing. I was feeling it by floor 12 or 13 and started alternating between skipping steps and running up single steps. By floor 20 I was ready to be at the top. I passed person after person. On the floor landings, people were saying things like, on floor 22, "over halfway there" or on floor 32, "only 8 more to go". I really could have done without that. As if I needed to be reminded that I still needed to climb 18 more flights. :)

Anywho, got to the top, scanned my chip, stopped my watch and made the obligatory warm down walk. My chest hurt really bad and I was taking inventory of whether it was lungs, heart, or a muscle problem. I wasn't coughing yet but many people were. I remembered that last year people were saying it was the poor circulation in the stairwell and things like that that were making people cough but I firmly believe that the super high intensity of the activity loosened up all the stuff that normally causes no problems in healthy lungs. We rode back down in the elevator and when I got to the bottom, I sat on the floor with my knees pulled up to my chest as hard as I could. This helped to decrease the work of breathing. So, having a cold and a somewhat compromised respiratry system probably didn't help me out a ton but it ended up going alright.

My chest eventually stopped hurting with each breath and I managed to stand up, get dressed and get back to the car in the cold.

I have been coughing all day and Mr KT says I sound like a smoker. That is hot, I know.

Last year I wasn't sure what I was getting into and I registered in the recreational division. I accidently won the women's division and so this year I registered for the competitive division.

Here are my individual results...

Race: FEMALE COMPETITIVE
Time: 7:07
Overall Place: 107 of 927
Place in Gender: 12 of 512
Place in Age Division: 4 of 154

The gal who got 3rd in my age group beat me by 5 seconds. Annoying.