Tuxedo Brothers Event Management

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Running Or Crawling To The Top

The "Bop to the Top" event this weekend gave new perspective on just how far one will go to get fit.

By Bill Remeika

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Indianapolis, Indiana —

Thirty six floors didn't seem like an awful lot, especially when one sees that number on paper. But paper is one thing, looking at the building that houses those floors with those stairs are another. This past weekend I joined about twelve hundred other people in Indianapolis at the One America Building in the "Bop to the Top" event. The event helps raise funds and awareness for Riley Children's Hospital.

Getting involved with this wasn't something that was on my radar about 5-6months ago. I had just started my exercise schedule and thought I was going along at a pretty nice clip until my friend Jenni Purcell of the American Dairy Association and a dietician, suggested this event might be up my alley in seeing how well I was coming along. I think she was paying me back for all the odd and non-stop questions I had been asking her. Plus, I think the signup sheet to swim the English Channel must have been filled!

So I begin training in preparation for this climb but still uncertain of what was to greet me that Saturday. It seemed like the past 8-10 weeks have been a blur with me marrying the stair stepper machine at the Lifestyle Family Fitness center at 96th and Meridian. There didn't seem to be a day that went by that I wasn't on it huffing and puffing and believing I could do it.

Saturday finally came and after the stretching and moaning and groaning I was ready to go. Off and running and with seven floors down, I thought, heck, I was moving and grooving with no problems. To quote Lee Corso, “Not so fast my friend." On the 11th floor I was greeted with a blast of cold air that was being pumped into the stairwell to keep things cool. Unfortunately that blast coupled with additional blasts on additional floors would make it a bit uncomfortable to breath. It was like my lungs were trapping the cold air and I couldn’t catch my breath.

The floor numbers all started to go together around the 20th. All I could keep thinking was no matter what, keep the legs churning and the hands grabbing the handrails. Finally what seemed like an eternity, I reached the 36th floor. My lungs were burning, my hands were sweaty and I was still ugly. Regardless, I had finished. My time was nine minutes and forty five seconds. Naturally I was a bit down as I had hoped my time would have been a bit better. But in looking back I can see where my time at the "Sweat Shop" as I affectionately call it, otherwise known as Lifestyle Family Fitness at 96th and Meridian, was paying off. No, I did not have the best time that day, but I had a better day than I would have had I not had any conditioning. Translation: I would have failed big time without doing the dirty work.

I am now turning my attention to the Regions Bank tower event in March for the American Lung Association. My goal is not to win, but to make sure my path is still on targetfor getting to my goals. So far so good, but tomorrow is another day, so I had better get back to work or in my case, back to sweating