Team Londonist Begins Gruelling Training Programme

By Craigie_B Last edited 170 months ago
Team Londonist Begins Gruelling Training Programme

Londonist takes on Tower42.jpeg
Beautiful. We wager it won't feel as nice as it looks when we reach Floor 30 and our lungs burst all over the walls.
Five intrepid Londonistas have just entered serious training mode ready for Vertical Rush next month, when we will snarl at and take on 1,200 others in our race up 920 steps to the very summit of Tower 42, the tallest accessible building in the City of London. There is apparently a champagne bar at the top (on floor 42, natch) which will help motivation.

Even now, though, you can tell we're serious. We're often seen resplendent in our 118 118 vests, fingering our moustaches and adjusting our sweatbands. We take every opportunity to train. Whenever we see an escalator, we stand at the bottom, block the way for everyone while we do our breathing exercises (to Get In The Zone) before sprinting up the steps, two at a time. We sometimes have to barge past - or indeed over - anyone foolish enough to be in our way (sorry, Gran). This has made us very unpopular during the 8.55am rush-to-avoid-being-late at Canary Wharf, but hey - they're only bankers, right? And that TfL restraining order can't be as enforceable as it looks.

The gym in Tower 42 has produced a ludicrously self-promoting video "to help us train". Watch it here, although a good summary would be "Use The Step Machine (esp in our gym)". Best quote from it has to be "This can also be performed outdoors...to replicate the stepping machine, use some steps". Er, thanks.

This is all an effort to support Shelter. We need to raise £2k, so if you feel you can contribute we'd really appreciate your help - via our justgiving page here.

In the meantime we will twiddle our moustaches, keep our elbows out and pointy and bravely take on every stair and escalator we see.

Onwards and UPWARDS, people.

Image from Joe Dunckley's Flickrstream as Creative Commons-licensed content

Last Updated 23 January 2010