coming a long way....

At the start of 2009, I resolved to take the stairs at the office whenever I can ... except in the mornings. Hey! I'm on the 15th floor. I haven't reached fully awake yet by the time I arrive at the office.

For the most part of the year, I've been able to keep this resolution. Deep down it all, the main reason for this was the yearly year-end stair climbing activity at the office.

The activity: walk up from the 2nd floor all the way to the 25th floor. A total of 23 floors. Yugadabikidinmi!

I did not even consider this in the last 2 year-ends... but...

Dec. 11, 2009 -- this is the first time I'm doing it.

It doesn't sound that bad. Except that I despise stairs. Because I have no stamina. Because I am anemic. I start huffing and puffing long before I want to.

On day 1, I start huffing on the 3rd floor, and make it up to the 5th before I could no longer lift a leg... and just needed to take a break. I eventually make it to the 15th, stopping at every two or three floors thereafter. It wasn't looking very rosy.

I was making a very teeny slight improvement when I had to take a long-ish brief period of rest for the whole of May and June. Needless to say I went pretty much back to zero.

No! I'm determined. I have to be able to go up to the 15th in one go.. and I did! (though I don't really remember when... and how...)

EUREKA! I did! huff! huff! whooshhhh~~

I did the straight 15 for about a week, until I went back to taking short breathers in between.

But I was a little bit pressured with the year-end stair climb.. if only because I didn't want to be caught stopping in the middle as I get my bearings back. Hey, it's still eight more floors than the highest I've ever gone straight.

The day has finally come... and gone. It was pretty uneventful. I was making good time, even though I started lagging a bit behind among my department mates by the 20th. However, this day will be recorded in the history of my life! 23 floors in one go! Seriously. I wasn't even huffing as hard as I normally do....

And so... coming from a really pathetic start, and achieving this first in my life (23 floors! I'm still in shock)... I've come a long way.