Swissotel Vertical Marathon 2013: The Aftermath

1,336 steps 73 floors, one sleepy Sunday morning + a gorgeous view @ the top.

Felt slightly bummed when standing in the starting pen alone, surrounded by other participants who are in pairs – my team mate unfortunately had to work (guess she forgot to change her shifts!).  It was not the 1^st time I’m taking part in a race solo but this felt even lonelier cos it is the sunrise TEAM challenge after all… for couples & buddies.  Furthermore, having the one person not turn up pretty much disqualifies the entire team.  Not that I was going for the win, but I was hoping for an official ranking instead of an “Incomplete Team” remark.  Chatting with a friend over fb messenger & telling him whatever that was going on did help heaps though, and that bummer feeling vanished upon flag-off.

I did not run, just went at a regular walking pace and tried to hold it steady for the entire duration.  I did stop on one of the floors (can’t remember where exactly) for about 10 secs to catch my breath but that was about it..  Something I’d like to note is that being one of the first in the stairwell (I was in the 4^th wave in the 1^st category) probably made a huge difference – friends taking part in the later categories were complaining about how warm & stuffy it was, but I didn’t feel it.  Then again, perhaps it was adrenaline that took over, causing me to not notice anything else aside from the steps ahead of me… and I believe, the 1^st word I uttered to a race marshal upon arriving at the top was – “Wow”.

That is just one sick view, huh?  Just wow ~ ❤

I can see the apartment block where I live from here!!

Looking @ the roads into the distance was pretty surreal…

Am still waiting for my official timing at this point of time & keeping fingers crossed that it will be reflected than dismissed totally.  I didn’t turn on my phone’s stop watch for the climb so I have no way of knowing how I fared.  I do hope that I made it within, or close to, my goal of 15 minutes… but even if I didn’t, I had the opportunity to take in an amazing view from somewhere not everyone has gone before, and for that, am totally chuffed.

Pretty nice bling too 😀

And yeah, waking up that early was totally worth it *\(^_^)/*

hmmm… no idea what that bright spot on my head was >_<