18m21s

That was the time for my CN Tower climb this year...and I'm damn proud. I'm not in great shape at the moment, and the only training I did for it was running to James Park with my sister from my house for two weekends prior to the CN Tower Climb. My goal of under 20 minutes was pretty modest, but I'm happy I succeeded. Kitty and Grace both had good times as well and I'm proud of them!

When I previously went on the climb a few years ago, I didn't do very well because I misjudged the number of flights. They advertise that it is 110 flights, but when you are actually climbing, the CN Tower staircase flights are not full flights. The number of CN Tower flights is actually 142. So from 90 to 110 I went fast and was totally spent upon reaching 110, only to find out there were 30 more flights. That sucked. I also didn't pace myself very well, sprinting for some portions and then being forced to take a breather. I ended up with 24 minutes (suxors) or so, I can't remember the exact time.

So how did I do it this time? I had motivation...wanna know what it was?

I went with Kitty, who had convinced some of her friends to go as well. One of them, Justina, a short unassuming chinese girl went on the climb with us. She started at the same time as me, but I got out to a quick start. Eventually, by 50 flights or so, she had caught up with me. I didn't want to get beat by her, so I kept going. So my motivation was "don't get beat by a girl".

Anyway, she passed me. Therefore, I modified my goal to "don't get dusted by a girl". I managed to keep up right behind her for the rest of the way. She set the pace, and it really motivated me to keep up. She later told me that she thought it was only 110 flights and was surprised that she had to do 30 more flights. Even so, we never took a break during the ascent, which was good. She ended up beating me by 3 seconds.

So, yes I got beat by a girl, but at least I didn't get dusted by her. Whew...I think...