Fred's Westcliff Stairs Challenge

So Fred put out a January Extreme Challenge to our Adventure Racing Club members: 10 reps of Westcliff Stairs. Sarah and I did the Challenge this morning. We got lucky with the weather - cool with light drizzle. That the stairs got a little slippy certainly reigned us in on the down, which was good.

We took it easy from the beginning knowing that the stairs would kick. There are LOTS of them. Our first split was probably slower than all but my final split.

To keep count of our reps, we put 10 stones at the bottom, moving one over with each rep completed.

The first six reps were A-ok. You definitely feel it a lot more from the 7th. The 9th was probably my worst and on the way down I nicked a finger on a join in the railing. I'd taken to dragging my hand long the railing on the way down - brushing off the rain. I skinned a bit of a finger - ow! Nonetheless, I seemed to feel better on the up on the final rep.

Sarah finished just ahead of me with 56:25; I clocked 57:50.

Fred did say we could crawl if we needed to... Sarah gives it a try on the way up. Turns out we didn't need to. But if there's been a few more reps...

I give crawling a try - downhill!

Sarah - done! (OK, so I asked her to look tired - she didn't really - see below)

10 reps and Sarah is still lookin' like she can take down more.

Me.

Lisa & Sarah

What a super Challenge! We're already looking forward to Fred's February as-yet-undisclosed Challenge.