Chapter 27

Having grown up in the city of Toronto, I literally had a front row seat watching the CN Tower being built. Back in the mid-70’s, my living room window provided me an unobstructed view as construction which had begun in February 1973, was finally completed in June 1976.

The CN Tower was the pinnacle of the Toronto skyline and forever would be. The world would now recognize Toronto by just one structure, the CN Tower.

It would be years later before public climbs were organized for various fundraising events, like the United Way and the World Wildlife Foundation. Although, I thought many times of participating in one of the semi-annual climbs, I never did.

Finally, after almost four decades I was now going to attempt my first climb on April 25th 2015. I was fifty-four years old, just a mere ten months from my last chemo treatment. Sherry was also on board and both of us trained very hard in the months leading up to the climb. Neither one of us knew what to expect, but both of us knew it would be a monumental challenge to say the least.

Having lived in a few high rise apartment buildings, I had always fancied myself a pretty quick stair climber. The tallest building that I lived in was thirty floors high and I would take the elevator down after reaching the top. I would repeat the parking level to penthouse climb, three maybe four times in succession on a good day.

It was years ago, I was fifteen years younger when I last stair climbed. I remember every one of those climbs were totally exhausting, I would sweat buckets inside the stuffy concrete stairwell.

The CN Tower, would be another animal all together. The climb would be 144 floors, 1776 steps and it was straight up. There would be no elevator breaks every 30th floor. I had vowed to myself I would do the climb that first day back home after surgery. Back then, the climb seemed like a lifetime away.

Now, the day had finally arrived.

Although, I was skating, playing hockey and working out hard on the stepmill, I just felt like I still had no endurance. I thought about delaying the climb to the following year when I was in better shape. Hell, there was still no guarantees that I would even be around in a year, let alone be in better shape.

I best do it now.

Sherry and I got up at 5 am, we drove for two hours straight to the CN Tower. It was packed when we arrived, a little too crowded for my liking. After waiting in line for over an hour, we checked in and started the climb. We started out together, but after a few flights I pulled away. I wanted to get my best possible time, a benchmark to compare with my future climbs.

I finished the climb, in a respectable 20:34 and Sherry arrived at the top just under four minutes later. We were both totally exhausted. The climb by far was the most challenging, physical activity either of us had ever attempted.

As we walked around the outdoor observation deck, it was a beautiful sunny morning and the cool breeze was much welcomed on our sweaty bodies. It had been extremely crowded and very warm in the stairwell during the climb. We both got a nice white WWF tee shirt with our times written in Sharpie on the back. I was so proud of Sherry, because she too had completed the climb also in a very respectable time for her first attempt.

Me.

I was already planning for next spring's climb. I would need to arrive very early, when the climb started at 6 am. There would be less climbers, no waiting and the stairwell would be much cooler. I would need to train much harder over the upcoming year, now that I knew what to expect. My goal, would be to shave a good three minutes off my first climb time of 20:34.

I was very proud of myself, I had now achieved both of the goals that I vowed I would complete. I sure was not feeling like the cancer patient, who had been defeated by those twenty-eight steps back at my condo just a year prior.

But, the reality was, I still was a cancer patient. Although, with each passing week I was feeling more and more confident that I was beating the big ‘C’.

Together, we both ascended and descended the CN Tower on that April morning. As we exited the glass elevator, we were both starving. On this day we headed to my old favorite hangout, a dumpy diner in the Bloor West Village for breakfast.