There's now a YouTube video of my climb online. Enjoy! :)

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my Vertical Rush JustGiving page. Having already paid £35 to take part, I'm expected to make up any shortfall if I fail to raise an extra £150 for Shelter... <worried face>

 

March 15th update: Wow! What can I say? I smashed my fundraising target by over £120. Thank. You. All. So. Much! I'm really moved by your support. Always after these events I start looking around for a fresh challenge, and I was lucky enough to get a last-minute place with the British Heart Foundation to run the world's largest Half Marathon for them; The Great North Run in Spetember. Have a look at http://www.justgiving.com/HawayTheLad for more information :)

 

March 4th update: Post event! What can I say? Thank you, thank you, thank you first, to everyone who supported the cause and got me to hit my £150 target on the morning of the event. At about floor 32, as my legs and lungs were both saying 'that'll do for now', it was the thought of letting you down which spurred me on. And to everyone who's given their money since; I'm amazed - You've helped me smash my target in a way my run time didn't really...

 

I arrived at Tower 42 ahead of my 1.30 run to take some photos (see below), noticed I looked to be the oldest person in the room, stripped to my running shorts and warmed up to the sound of a drum band and Bob the Builder getting his groove on. In groups of 10 we were called forward and I was at the rear of my group, meaning I only had people to overtake. This is did around floors 8-15 and another at about 25, but he then re-took me. I went as quickly as I could, finding both single steps and two steps at once uncomfortable due to the awkward height of the steps and the air so dry because the aircon was on full blast that I was soon panting like a dog in a hot car; not something that'd happened in training. As the last few floors came up I pushed on as hard as I could, bouncing over the automatic-timing finish line by the top step and checking my watch for the first time as I did so (no point in checking it on the way up; it'd only slow me down) - I may have sworn a bit when I saw the time. With a 7 minute target, I'd finished the climb in 6.58.7 by my watch. A bit too close for comfort! 1.3 seconds. I honestly don't think I could have gone any faster.

 

I relaxed at the top, had my official £10 photo taken and admired the great views across London before dropping back to the start in a lift that made my ears pop. Chatting to other runners was interesting, hearing their training stories and meeting the 2nd placed woman, who was thrilled to have been so fast with very little specific training.

 

I watched the timing screen in the main hall with interest, seeing I was 132nd of 700-odd runners with an official time of 6:58. Nice that it'd rounded down to that and not up to 6:59! I also got to meet the winners; Fabio Ruga for the men at 4:24! and Christina Bonacina for the women at 6:02 - That's really flying. By the final count I'd slipped to 142nd and 140th male. Meaning I'd suddenly got something in common with Max Mosley; I'd been beaten by two women... There were 882 recorded finishers.

 

You can see the full list here: http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/results.php?checked=1&race_id=603&submit_x=139

 

Or my own result here: http://www.tdl.ltd.uk/results.php?checked=1&race_id=603&race_number=32&submit_x=145

 

Photos:

Shelter's Vertical Rush: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/7c46acd4-738c-4854-be28-06818b6dc219.jpg

I was born to pose, baby! http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/02a3d4ed-9b1d-48cf-8918-bee405a47c9e.jpg

Shooting Bob the Builder. Who'd not want to after a while? http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/7469b61b-9a49-4fe7-ac5a-bb05bb6c2f8b.jpg

Am I the oldest person in the room? http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/4026caaa-439d-41f8-924f-6ef2cf484008.jpg

It looks no shorter from this angle... http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/2b9e8e12-098c-4cbd-8c27-77130a836898.jpg

I try to re-enact my t-shirt. It's harder than it looks: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/6b05ea4d-fb93-40d4-8a3c-c98f993e20a4.jpg

My finishing time: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/ba5eb9cf-94f5-4ac7-b14a-f85ea385410a.jpg

Meeting the winners, Fabio and Christina. I was in awe: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/a479eb85-62ef-4e35-a6d4-8a81b74639e7.jpg

2nd place lady looking very pleased with herself; as she should :) http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/f7ba6e49-0124-4c75-bed3-fc7eb9d973c4.jpg

Cool signs I missed on the way up: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/6ab69f97-ff7a-4d75-84f4-ba60a08c4be7.jpg

Tower 42, later that evening: http://img.geocaching.com/cache/log/54feafef-797b-47cc-b367-65e3058be467.jpg

 

The worst thing about the physical experience was the hacking cough the dry air had given me. It'd felt like an asthma attack without the asthma and my throat still isn't 100%. The legs are fine though. Next time I hope they'll let me run it 9 times across the day for the full vertical mile. or it'll move to either the Heron building - amazing glass-walled stairwell which would stop it feeling like a run up a very tall car park - or Europe's tallest building, The Shard. How amazing would that be? I also learned there's a 'Three Peaks of London' event, where you run between the buildings before climbing them. Tempted to look into that - Stay tuned! :) 

 

Big thanks to the Shelter volunteers who looked after us all so well and cheers again to all those who supported my efforts. There will be a YouTube video of the adventure along before too long!