When: Saturday 9/13/2025, 06:00 – completion
Where: Nation Ford High School, Football Stadium
Why:
9/11 is a day nobody will ever forget. Nobody should ever forget. Many lives were lost and America as we knew it was forever changed after that day.
What:
In honor of the 24th anniversary of that fateful, horrible day, we will be doing a 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb.
Each of the NYC Twin Towers had 110 stories and 2,070 steps. The football stadium bleachers at Nation Ford High School (aka Honey Badger, Ring of Fire, and Varsity), there are 6 rows (the larger two-way rows) of steps, each row with 34 steps. Going up then down each of the 6 rows gets you 204 steps, which is one round. Repeat that 10 times, or 10 rounds, +1 more row, you have 2074 steps. We would run all 6 rows 10 rounds, then add one row to make it 66 rows total. Granted we’d be going up 66 times, down 66 times, but we’d get the total step count in. To keep things easy, we decided to do 11 total rounds.

After some encouraging words and lifting up some words in respect and honor of those lost, we set off. Some ran, some speed walked, others rucked. A few replicated the 60-70 lbs average load a fireman carries when prepped to fight. Coupons were added to the mix too. Work was done, excellent fellowship was shared, and the patches were well earned. Everyone did a GREAT job. It was quite a morning.

One thing – the stairs in twin towers, all 110 stories, would yield an elevation gain of 1,100 ft. Unfortunately, after 12 rounds or so, I only got 900 ft elevation gain. SO…..doing the math, next year we will be going for the elevation gain, which means we will have to do 15 rounds total of all those steps.

Thanks for the opportunity to lead.
NASA