At about 7:45 this morning, this nice group of people smiled and posed for a photo just before heading out to climb 1776 stairs in support of the United Way. Of these six, only two - me and the woman at the far left of the shot - had ever climbed before. Despite my being a veteran of two previous climbs - in 2009 and 2011 - my promise to my team was that I would take longer to climb than any of them.
I kept my promise.
In the photo I'm wearing the shirt I got after my very first time up the tower, with a climb time recorded on the back of 33 minutes, 26 seconds. As climb times go, it's a few minutes longer than average. Talented climbers can do the whole 144 flights in less than half of that. My former boss used to boast that he'd once done the climb in fourteen minutes.
He doesn't do that now.
My climb time in 2011 was slower than in 2009. That t-shirt says 36 minutes and 37 seconds.
The t-shirt from today says 33 minutes, 32 seconds.
If this inspiring story of human endurance and fussy time keeping makes you think you'd like to support the efforts of my team, you can still make a donation. Just click here.
Oh, right. The post title. Who is the Extraction Crew? They're the group of paramedics who identified themselves on the landing of the 26th level as they radioed to another crew that two climbers had gone far enough and needed help getting out of the tower.
Good to know the Extraction Crew is on the job. Maybe I don't need to retire right away after all.
Thanks for reading!
Have a great week!
Karen
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