The Carew Climb

Being the good little pinko that I am, I spent this last Sunday doing volunteer work. For the American Lung Association, aka Der Leibstandarte. This particular form of "volunteerism" was the Carew Stumble Climb, named for the Carew Tower, the tallest building in Cincinnati.

The object of this death march fundraiser is to climb 45 stories of stairs or 804 steps. All at once. In the same, er, standing, or whatever. Yeah. I KNOW. Dumb, right? Exceedingly so when you consider the fact that there are like, six perfectly functioning elevators in the building that can take a person directly to the 45th floor in less than two minutes.

Well, it was really much harder than I thought. They told me we did it in approximately 12 minutes, which I figured was pretty good, considering my age, relatively poor physical condition and general sloth-like nature. Then again, there are nutters that can do this thing in four minutes, or cow suits, or full fireman's gear. I don't know what kind of shape a specimen has to be in to do that in four minutes, but I do know that I'll likely never be loony enough to find out for myself.

To double the pleasure, I roped Mollie into this little scheme of mine. Hey - it's all for a good cause, right? So, on with the pix:

Colin enjoys a cookie before Mollie and I arrive on the 45th floor.

Mollie and I, right after finishing, on the 45th floor.

Colin with the "everybody gets a medal" medal I was awarded for my yeoman's effort.
And to make my achievement seem all the more insignificant, here's the nutter who did the climb in the cow suit. So my plan for next year will be to do the climb with an anvil strapped to my neck. While wearing a cow suit, natch. Again, it's all for charity.
Bonus Olive picture, by request.

You're welcome, Alex.