Hustle Up The Hancock

The only thing better than taking an elevator is taking the stairs.  Butterflies and monkey’s with red butts aside, I am proud to inform you that I have successfully climbed the Hancock tower (93 flights of stairs) in 17:28 and placed 40th in my category.

I’ve never done a stair climb before.  There is one famous stair climb in Israel at the Azrieli Towers but I could never understand why one would pay to climb stairs.  I would much rather do something out in nature than climb up a cramped stairwell with a ton of other sweaty people.  There are several very simple reasons why I climbed the Hancock tower despite my preconceived notions about this type of race.

1. Common… It’s THE Hancock tower!
2. What better way to say goodbye to Chicago than from the (tippy) top of the city.
3. I get to say that I did something for a cause (Respiratory Health Association).  I usually just do things for a reason so having a cause is the best reason I can think of.

After an exciting night of pub crawling (see image above), I took the train back into the city.  My climb was at 2PM which gave me plenty of time to have a competition breakfast* and head off to the Hancock.  After arriving, I stood in line and waited patiently for the beginning of the stairwell.  I couldn’t help but think what would happen if there was a fire? Would everybody turn around and run down? It’s a good thing that there was no visible fire alarm because I was dying to find out.
Finally, I arrived at the bottom of the stairwell where a guy said “3,2,1 GO”.  I went.

I didn’t touch the rail the whole way up.  I simply used my arms as much as possible to propel myself and put less strain on my legs. After 17 minutes and 28 seconds I had reached the (tippy) top – Average heart rate was 186 so it wasn’t a piece of cake at all.  The nice part was standing in the open area of the Hancock observatory and cooling down after the effort. What a view…. Goodbye Chicago.  I almost turned my back to the city to throw a coin (like at the Trevy Fountain) but my limited knowledge of physics prevented me.  I know I’ll be back, no need to throw a coin.

• US competition breakfast – Two whole grain Eggo waffles with sugar free syrup and 371 blueberrries (a lot of blueberries).
• Israel competition breakfast – A white bread roll or two pieces of white bread toast with honey.

Just to be brief, this is what happened after that: I finished working in Chicago, said goodbye to my friends, packed my bike, packed my bags, flew to Maryland.  Now I’m in Maryland just training and studying for my GMAT exam until the middle of May.  On the 17th of May… (drumroll).. I will participate… (another drumroll) … in the Ford 70.3 Florida Ironman! Don’t forget to check out my intensifying training log right here.
http://www.workoutlog.com/log/public/anatkramer/log.cfm

Breakfast with Sam Zell

On a breakfast note, I had one with Sam Zell and my friend Tal.  Sam Zell is the one who is responsible for the IDC Zell Entrepreneurship program.  To sum up our internships, we had the opportunity to have breakfast with Sam.  We discussed the financial situation for the most part but we had the opportunity to thank him and hopefully, others will follow in our footsteps in the years to come. Thanks Sam! (Pssst, I’m a little bit taller than you)

Next on the agenda – The Suntrust National Marathon (21st March)

Random Photos

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This is how it works -  You swim for 10 minutes, ride on a silly gym bike for 20 minutes and then run for 15 minutes. Your distances are noted and your placement is determined by your distance.  That makes sense except for the bike part.  You see, the bikes at the gym are all configured differently.  During both races, it was unclear weather the better results were from a fast cadence and low resistance or a moderate cadence and a high resistance.  Each time I was frustrated because I felt like I was working so hard and still behind the others.

The swim is fairly standard.  In the first triathlon I swam 22 laps in 10 minutes and 23 laps in the second.  In the first triathlon I ran 1.89 miles and in the second I ran almost 2 miles.  The first triathlon was on a treadmill and the second one was on a track smack in the middle of the gym.  If it didn’t cost so much to participate, then I wouldn’t mind doing one everyday.

They should also have long indoor triathlons that you can participate whenever you want.  Imagine if you could sign up for a triathlon at your gym at any given day and the results would be constant, like the scores on a Pacman arcade game.  This could be a great money maker because I never want my name to go down in the ranks and I will constantly be motivated to compete again and improve.

Today, during the 15 minute run on the track smack in the middle of the gym, I beat the running record.  The record was 20 laps and I had finished 22 laps.  I was completely winded afterwards but it was totally worth it.  I will have to wait until the results are posted to know if my record is still standing.  The wave start makes it difficult to gage how your really doing.

Some major life updates :

1. I’m leaving Chicago on the 2nd of March and moving to Maryland until May.
2. I started a GMAT course at ManhattanGMAT



3. In May I’m going to compete in the Florida Ford 70.3 Ironman.  If anybody else is competing, write me a comment.
4. I’ll be back in Israel in May
5. I’m going to Italy after I return to Israel. My cycling team from Israel and I will be going to a place called Hotel Dori for about a week to cycle and play.
6. Not so sure what I’ll be doing afterwords.  If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

On a more positive note – puppies.

I seem to have repressed this one memory from the triathlon today.  Usually, there are a lot of things to remember when you compete in a triathlon because of all the logistics.  If you compete in Israel you even have to remember to bring toilet paper.  An indoor triathlon is different, you really just need your bathing suite, goggles, cap, clothes for running and cycling and sports shoes.  There is, however, one thing that you don’t have in a real triathlon – A locker.  Lockers come with keys… need I say more?

Well, I finished the swim and hurried into the locker room, only to realize that… hmmm… I know I had them when I went to the pool… even though I am wearing a bathing suit, I find myself patting my lower ribs where pockets would have been… also, I know that if you scratch your head with a confused look then it helps sometimes…better run back.  I ran back to the pool only to find nothing.  Meanwhile, I sent my coach and another guy to go to the front desk to see what they can do.  I ran back up to the locker room and a girl was waiting with a master key.  I blessed her, bowed my head moaning how “I’m not worthy”, wished her luck in her future endevers and may her children be prosperous.   Well, she must have known that’s what I meant when I said thanks.  The only word that went through my mind was the word ‘Whew’.  Lucky someone invented the word ‘Whew’…. or did they? Either way, I got dressed really fast and hopped back down to the bicycles.  Thanks again to the ‘Whew’ guy…

Now I have to open that google docs file, find the column that says ’stupid things I’ve done’ and add another row.

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