Stairs of the World

With the extended winter that we have felt this year in Saskatchewan (yes, yes... and many other places too) I have been in a bit of a funk. Trying to get over it usually involves pushing myself to some physical extreme. At Quest New Year, The Doctor mentioned that his brother had embarked on a mission to do his age in chin-ups, of all things. Checking my records... I see that my maximum ever was 16 in a row (currently at 10). That gives me a ways to go, but I have decided to work on it. At the same time, so my lower body doesn't atrophy, I have been attacking the Arts Tower with renewed vigor.

The tower is approximately 50.22m and I'll throw a little history lesson (dates of construction etc...) in for good measure. For now, I'd love to make the assumption that the total height of the building, 50m, roughly equals the distance I run from the basement to the top floor. Sadly, for me, in 1996 I measured the height of a single stair at 18cm. My own internal measurements come out to be about 40m vertical change on the inside.

So now, I ran and walked to the top 11 times in 57 minutes. If I had to estimate, I would be generous and say that 40% of that was something approximating a run. On the way down, I jogged probably 80%. The rest I walked. The walking sounds restful, but really it looks and sounds a lot like a 41 year old man about to collapse and die :)

Burj Khalifa (Dubai)-- 163 floors, 585m (top floor), 829m (roof)

Arts Tower (Saskatoon)-- 11 floors (x11)= 121, 440m (top floor)

World Trade Center (RIP)-- 110 floors, 411m (top floor), 417m (roof)

First Canadian Place (tallest in Canada)-- 72 floors, 290m (top floor)

Obviously I need to get to the top of the Burj Khalifa. The top floor first and the the roof! As an intermediate (yet still distant) goal, I would like to be able to run up all the floors in the tallest building in Canada. No walking... Yikes!