Adventure 27 - Hustle Up the Hancock February 27, 2011

It began as an idea spraked by a conversation with a drug rep who had just completed the 2010 Hustle.  So after looking up the details, I signed up to get additional information and shared the idea with a few friends who are always up for a challenging adventure.

In November, sign up started for the 4000 Full Climb and Half Climb Spots for 2011 Race and the spots closed in 1 hour and 15 minutes on November 1.  So when the lines closed, Ben Hobbs and I were the two that had been able to get a spot for the full climb.      
With good intentions of training well, I decided instead to travel the month of December and then was sick for most of January.  Thus crash training began in February.

The weekend was delighful in Chicago.  I was able to spend some time with Karen and Michael and the boys.  Dinner with Karen, Michael and Ben at Elwood's was amazing and the BBQ chicken was delicious!  In addition, I was able to see the 25th annivaersary of Les Miserables, the musical. 



Pre-Hustle Photo with Ben

 Sunday dawned with the Hustle.  I was given a 12:15 wave time and Ben had the 1:30 time slot.  I arrived early as requested.  Ben joined me to wait in line around 11:30 for my start.  It was awesome to have someone there to encourage and cheer me on at the start!


Thankfully a woman behind me had experience and gave me some good advice - take you time, don't look at the numbers on the floors and just keep your feet moving and don't stop.  You will have sore legs and your lungs will hurt but keep going. 
So began the 94 floor climb to the top.  Round and round and round I went, not prepared to become dizzy as I went up the stairs nor was I prepared for my ears to pop and to have some influence of a little altitude, as the stairmaster definately does not prepare you for ascending 94 floors.  I did think about the germs that would be on the railings and the need to wash my hands at the top!  My legs got tired and I was shocked by the lung pain and the coughing that awaited me the rest of the afternoon (and continued for a few days).  By floor 70, I was exhausted and it took sheer will power to keep going and I was thrilled to get to the top even though I was completed out of breath!  After some time on the cool observation deck and wandering around to catch my breath, I went to wait for Ben since his start time was an hour behind me, which really just gave me a head start!
Ben did great and he too was a bit winded at the top.  Ben is gifted with natural athletic ability and terrific endurance especially in longer races and other stamina related activities.  He also thought the event was a challenge, which made me feel good because he is in such good shape.  His time was impressive with a finish in 16:18, placing him 293 overall - yes for the entire field of Hustlers!  Amazing!



Post Hustle photo

 My unofficial time was 23:31 and I was thrilled as my goal was to finish under 30 minutes.  I had been told by my primary care MD, that the loss of lung diffusion with my chemo, bleomycin in particular, would always limit my physical ability and that I have most likely gotten back the function that I can already.  (I went from a lung diffusion of 115% pre-treatment to 85% after 5 months of treatment and my oncologist then removed the drug for the last month so that I would be able to do some physical activities that I enjoy and also so did not end up on a ventilator after my final treatments for a while!)


Post Hustle 2011

  In other words, I will never be really good at many endurance things again and will peak long before I would like.  But I will continue to train with the understanding of realistic expectations.  My official time was 23:28. My overall placement was 1728 out of roughly 2900.  I finished 668 of 1435 women and 182 of 395 in my age group.  I was really pretty surprised and encouraged.  

The line to take the elevator was long and we were a part of a group that got to take the service elevators down to the main level.  The elevators went from floor 94 to 44 and then we had to exit to get on another elevator to get to the main level.  So we got to see parts of the Hancock reserved for service personnel, which was much more fun!