What was I thinking?

Shortly after I signed up for the Hustle I took my kids to the Museum of Science and Industry. Paige, my daughter, decided that it was time for me to begin my training by walking up the stairs to get to the museum. I knew she was right so I walked up the stairs and counted them as I went. At the top my legs were burning, I could not breathe and my heart was going to explode.

I had counted 43 stairs. 43 not 143, not 1043, just 43 stinking stairs. What was I thinking?

I agreed to walk up 1632 stairs and almost died walking up 43? How was I going to do this? I had four months to go from 43 to 1632. During those four months I had to factor in the weather, and Holidays, and my crazy work schedule, and the fact that there are no buildings over 5 stories where I live so I could train in an actual building.

What was I thinking?

So I started training in November by running 3 miles 2 - 3 times a week. Then at the end of November, my son Derek broke his arm, and I did not sleep for two weeks. I got behind on preparing for the Holidays, and I did not train at all for over a month. The next thing I knew it was January, and I was talking to Melissa about not being able to train in a building. Melissa told me, "Go to the gym and use the stairmaster because anything is better than nothing."

So I went to the gym to meet my new friend the stairmaster. The first day I climbed like 32 floors, and decided the stairmaster was NOT my friend because my butt hurt, I was sweating like a pig and was exhausted. What was I thinking? Then I read that 1 floor on the stairmaster was equal to 10 steps. So while my brain thought I had conquered a third of the Hancock that first day, I had only walked up 320 steps which wasn't even a quarter of the way up.

What was I thinking?