We completed the climb this weekend.  1215 steps in total in a little under 20 minutes.  I stopped at both rest stops and caught my breath – or at least attempted to.  Considering I didn’t do anything to “train” for this event, I was pretty happy.  Plus, we raised over $2000.00 and the donations keep coming.  We are so incredibly grateful.
The event was organized really well.  I was really worried about being stuck on the stairs with hundreds of sweaty people, but we were released one at a time within our time slot.  The stairs were wide, clean and the perfect temperature.  They had lots of snacks and waters at the top and the bottom.  But the highlight was the view.  I love that view of the city – it’s one of my favorites.

Our start time was before 7:00 AM and we had to get there early, so we were out the door by 5:30 AM.  The city is a pretty amazing place that early in the morning.  Rockefeller Center was quiet and empty and we had 6th Ave to ourselves on our way there.
We took our before picture and got lined up to make the climb.  I was anticipating at least 45 minutes in the stairwell.  I had no clue what normal was and I figured my legs would be crying about halfway up, but we just powered through and felt pretty good.  The trick is to chew gum or a hard candy because it is extremely dry in the stairwell.

And obviously we had to take a few pictures with our “first place medals” at the top before heading down to stuff our faces with bananas, granola bars and juice boxes.

We had epic naps when we got home and relaxed the remainder of the day.  
This was the perfect way to kick off our March.  We are starting a 21 day cleanse today (not to be confused with the 21 day fix.)  We have read the book Crazy, Sexy Diet and it has guidelines at the back for a 21 day cleanse for your body.  We are cutting out gluten, caffeine, dairy, animal products, alcohol and processed sugars as much as possible.  We are sticking with the 80/20 rule to allow ourselves some normalcy, but will be upping our vegetable intake and making lots of quinoa and rice dishes.
Being a girl that lives for a beer, a stick of cheese, coffee and cupcakes, this will be challenging, but we’ve been cutting things out over the last week to reduce the risk of headaches and crabbiness.  We aren’t doing this as a weight loss challenge, in fact, we will be watching our calories closely to make sure that we are taking in as much as possible over the next few weeks.  Our goals are to feel good and reset a little bit.  I have no intention to make this my lifestyle in the future, but I’m excited to try some new foods and challenge myself a little bit.  What perfect timing to link up with one of my favorite bloggers, Erin.

Love, Fun & football