I just finished climbing the Empire State Building in an hour. The wind’s up today, and it’s cold too, so going for a walk is a bit sketchy. Yeah, I could bundle up in multiple layers and brave the conditions but I decided not to. I decided to climb the Empire State Building instead. It wasn’t an epic Hero’s journey or anything special, just me against the machine, otherwise known as the NordicTrack. The top floor of the Empire State Building is 1250’ above the ground there at W. 34th St, New York, NY and that’s the goal – Right around a quarter mile high, in an hour.
Climbing the Empire State Building on the NordicTrack was an idea I had a few Winters ago when the iFit subscription ran out. I was looking for something to stay motivated to get enough cardio. Something a bit different than a steady state workout for some specific time or distance and then it came to me – get some steep. Going uphill is hard. Back when I first moved to Colorado some 45 years ago, I had the dumb idea to climb all the 14er’s. There are over 50 of them, not to mention nearly 600 13er’s. I made it about a third of the way through the list before the passion for climbing mountains was replaced by a passion for running rivers.
Then with time, my passion changed again, like it has time and again over the next 45 years. I still like to bag a mountain every once in a while and run a river now and again but I’m not as passionate about it as I was then. Presently, more than anything else, my passion is about being able to do any of those things, if I want to. Age has a way of creeping up on us and before we know it, we just can’t do the things we used to do. Bit by bit we fade away. I suppose it’s to be expected, that we are mortal beings, not Greek Gods. But I have decided that I am not going peacefully. I’m not going to just fade away. I’ve decided that I am going to go full speed into whatever lies ahead – that’s my present passion.
“It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.” ~ Gabriel García Márquez
Note: I tried it again the next day and made it to the top in 47 minutes.
