I’ll take the stairs…

by Darin on January 26th, 2009

The “Bop to the Top” has now come and gone. The event was everything I thought it would be and a little more.

number

Here is a closer look at the lower right corner. This should explain a lot.

wacky

The day began with getting ready in the morning. You may be wondering what you take with you on a stair climb event. Here is a list of what I brought with me and why:

towel – for obvious reasons
change of clothing – again, no explanation needed
water bottles, MotorTabs, Fluid Recovery – keep me moving
MP3 player – loaded with tunes to keep me distracted
cough drops, Buckleys cough medicine – the air in the building is VERY dry.
gloves – imagine licking the floor of a bus stop bathroom, thats what the hand rails feel like after 700 sweaty people use them.
Evomo threads – What else would I wear?

group11

We begin the day at registration and quickly realize this year will make for another record event. I turn in my donations for Riley’s Childrens Hospital, pick up my entry packet and begin to put my number on. The event is timed using timer chips which are placed on your shoe. Once in place there are electronic mats at the start and finish that read the chips and record the times.

elevators

So off I go for my first run. All the training paid off and I felt I maintained a pretty even pace. I rested between runs and finished all three and waited for the results.

22 TRIPLE: DARIN KOELM        M38   07:28.8       Total Time=0:22:54.4
                                                                             07:31.1
                                                                             07:54.5

This placed me at 22 out of 59. Around 1,300 people entered and only 59 dared to attempt the “Triple Step”.