I've joined the New York Marathon

No I haven't.

But in a slightly related topic, I climbed the steps to the CN Tower last Saturday. This story is probably best told in timeline format:

Saturday
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6:00 AM Alarm clock wakes me up

6:15 AM I finally get out of bed

6:30 AM I'm on the subway

7:00 AM At the CN Tower; the jog from the subway station has left me breathless

7:30 AM Registration/etc is finished, I'm now in line

7:45 AM Security scan lineup

7:59 AM I hit the first of 1776 stairs, the largest metal staircase on earth

8:00 AM Jogging was a bad idea, let's try a brisk walk

8:05 AM Me: "Did that guy just say 3/4 of the way?" I can do this!

Climber1: No, 1/4 of the way

Climber2: They usually exaggerate, we're about 1/5th of the way.

8:09 AM I take a 1 minute break. Each flight of stairs has a landing which is wide enough to rest on and still allow people to pass. The air is incredibly thin, I'm breathing as hard as I can but it's not helping. Finally, I decide that my breathing won't improve anyway, so I light up a cigarette. Halfway through the cigarette, alright just kidding, I obviously didn't smoke.

8:10 AM Start up the stairs again. I'm currently on flight 88. I estimate that I'm at the halfway point (there were about 150 of them, not a bad estimate if I do say so myself). I feel claustrophobic now, because the bottom is now just as far as the top, and I can't breathe. I grab a kid by the neck, and start beating the shit out of her. Halfway through the beating, fine, I didn't kick anyone's ass either.

8:17 AM I just heard the medic on the next flight of stairs tell someone that there's about 20 flights of stairs left. I can do this!

8:18 AM Is that angels I hear? Have I climbed the tower of Babel? No, it must be the guys stamping time cards and giving out water!

8:19 AM 20 minutes and 41 seconds after I started, I reach the top. At least that's what they've told me. In reality though, my time card may be stamped, but I am now on a different set of stairs, 8 more flights before I reach what is really considered the top, the viewing balcony. A cheering section awaits me as I ascend the final staircase, but interestingly enough, the cheering dies down almost completely as I approach. Who the fuck paid these fucking University of Toronto Arts students to do the cheering anyway? Any Science student would realize that whether it's a large group of people coming through the door (as was the group in front of me), or a few people in a row (in my case), a certain amount of cheering must always be done. Screw you, shitty cheering section, I climbed this tower, give me my water, and don't forget the pickles on my next cheeseburger.

8:24 AM The view from the CN tower was interesting. That's a generous statement after you've looked down from the Empire State Building. I'm not comparing The Big Apple with The Big Orange (?) here. As insanely amazing as Manhattan is, I wasn't expecting the same vast array of skyscrapers from the CN Tower. But they have an annoying mesh fence around the entire balcony, so your view is somewhat obstructed. At the Empire State Building, I was worried about dropping my camera when I changed film; no mesh. Unbeknownst to me, the CN Tower is about 600 feet higher than the Empire State Building, and was about 350 feet higher than the twin towers.

8:30 AM I take the elevator down, and no, climbing the stairs down wasn't an option. The climb was scheduled from 6:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and when I get down, the lines are incredibly long, and I'm glad that I woke up early.

I haven't smoked in 8 days, and I've ran nearly every day to keep my mind off of it. I can't say that I'll never smoke a cigarette again though, because when I return home for the weekend in two weeks, I can name several people who I'd like to share a cigarette with. I've broken the physical addiction I think, but I still think that sharing a cigarette with one of my friends would be more enjoyable than not having one.

I don't know if I'll ever change that mindset. Perhaps if I were training for a marathon..