Yup, it's done. We did it. The Great Gaspers (me, Willow and Tish) climbed 63 stories to the top of the second tallest building in downtown Los Angeles (I guess the tallest was not available?) to raise money for the American Lung Association. And by the way, if you meant to make a donation, and it somehow slipped your mind, you can still do so by contributing online or sending in a check to the American Lung Association.
This is the building, which pretty much disappeared into the clouds this morning.
So, yes, the building is quite tall.
We got our numbers and our shoe tags (they actually time you, so at some point I will tell you long it took, but it was in the 30 minutes range. Here we are, ready for action. And by the way, it was gray and cold(ish).
From left to right: Willow, Tish, me. And I'd like to point out that in this photo you can clearly see that Willow and I have rather nice asses.
Adam came along to show us support (well, really, to show Willow support, but we got the benefit too), and also because Adam and Willow left right after lunch to go spend a romantic weekend together.
We started our climb at around 10:15, and the stairs for the first few floors are very tight and every 5 or 6 steps turn 90 degrees, so you're almost circling up. After about 2 floors I was already starting to feel sick. You see, my worst nightmare is the teacups at Disneyland. Actually, it's more like your worst nightmare, because the vomit will get all over you due to the centrifugal force of the teacups going around and around and around. But I digress.
We took a few quick breaks along the way, mostly so we could document our progress and drink a few sips of water. We made it to Bad Luck Station without incident (and by incident I mean falling up the stairs and smacking knees or shins into the hard concrete steps, or somehow losing our balance and rolling back down the stairs).
The next stop was on floor 30. While there I sent Adam a text to let him know we were still alive and climbing. Willow wanted to stop at 29 but by the time she reminded me I was half way up to 30 and there was no way I was going back down, even for one flight of stairs.
I am still smiling, sort of, though something weird has happened to my eyebrows and my hair is looking slightly ruffled. But then, my hair almost always looks ruffled. Pretty good poker face, otherwise, I think. But I wasn't really sweating yet, which is pretty good. A bunch of people passed us, some of which we passed later, and there were lots of folks who looked they were about to faint, and had basically flopped to the side of the stairs to catch their breath. We kept running into one guy who very kindly took our picture several times along the way. We gave him an excuse to take a little break.
The next stop for us was at the meaning of life, the universe and everything.
Somewhere in the 50's, the level of excitement began to build. At that point, we knew we were going to make it, and Willow had not needed to use her inhaler even once.
I made it to the top first, by only a couple of minutes, and was able to get a shot of Tish and Willow's march of triumph.
Clearly, there is a tendency to ham it up in the group. At last, at the top of the building, above the clouds, The Great Gaspers celebrate their achievement by squinting into the sun, and clutching their ionized water bottles.
And that, as they say, is that. Considering that we didn't train and just showed up and up we went, I would say we did exceptionally well.
After the great climb of 2010, we went to LA Live, that new hotel/restaurant/entertainment area in downtown LA, and had lunch at Rosa Mexicana, which I highly recommend - they make guacamole right there at the table for you, and it is the most delicious guac you've ever had. The food is excellent, and I was rather shocked at the amount that I managed to eat.
Thank you to all of you who have contributed to this worthy cause, and here's to finding solutions for lung ailments, which are unfortunately becoming more common, even among people who have never smoked.
If you would like to see all the pictures, including drab birds' eye view shots of downtown LA (drab because there was a lot of mist), please visit my Fight For Air Climb 2010 Flickr set.
Peace out.


