On Saturday, March 7, 2009 a fellow Fidalgo Island Firefighter Terry Bowen’s, life was cut short after his battle with leukemia. One year to the date on Sunday, March 7, 2010, Fidalgo Island firefighters will race up the stairs in full bunker gear and SCBA in memory of Terry Bowen. At 788 feet of vertical elevation, the Columbia Center in downtown Seattle, stands as the second tallest building west of the Mississippi. It takes 69 flights of stairs and 1,311 steps to reach the highly acclaimed observation deck overlooking the city. This year, over 1,500 firefighters from 300 different departments are expected to compete in the event, making it the single largest firefighting competition in the world!
I can't believe I am going to attempt this. I have been training since November, running stairs and then running Mt. Erie on weekends. I know I am going to be so happy that I did it when I'm done but right now I'm NERVOUS! On the day I signed up, I had a dream that I only made it 7 steps and collapsed! When I stated training, I had a dream that they changed it to a snowboarding compition and I had to snowboard up hill! Lets hope these are just stupid dreams!
