Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
The Gauntlet
25Jan2004 Filed under: Happiness & Health
Andreas and I are lucky enough to live just a few blocks from Seattle’s Volunteer Park. I love Volunteer Park. It’s got great big sloping feilds, the original black hole sun, a conservatory, and a rousing late-night gay cruising scene. In addition, the park was voted “Best Place To Have Sex In A Car!”
It’s also got a water tower.
Last week, Dre and I started running the stairs at the water tower. I call it “Running The Gauntlet,” and really the word running shouldn’t be in there because I can only run a few steps, and then I just wheeze and huff and puff and walk as fast as I can. There are 180 steps, and I go up and down them all three times.
By the time we head home, my legs are all a-wobble and I’m typically nauseus and gasping. Ah: excellent work-out!
I’m slowly improving, though. The first time we did the tower, I was only able to run 50 steps. I was sore to the point of being a limping cripple for THREE days. The second time, I was able to run a 60-step set and then another 30 steps before slowing to my wheezing crawl. And I wasn’t sore at all. Today I managed to run two 60-step sets, and then half of another one.
Go body!
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- Tags: capitol hill, exercise, running
6 Responses to “The Gauntlet”
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Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, is in bookstores now.
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Philos
January 25th, 2004 at 1:14 pm
I didn’t know that sculpture was the “black hole sun”. I do know there’s a sculpture/thing in Magnusson Park called the “soundgarden”, hence the band’s name, but I haven’t been to that park yet to see it.
paisley
January 25th, 2004 at 1:34 pm
this post reminds me that i need to get the heck out of my house!!!
and do Something!
have fun huffin’ and puffin’..
Katherine
January 25th, 2004 at 2:34 pm
yay for you! now I’m going tog back and read it a few more times in hopes that it will inspire me to a little bit more sweating than brining in wood for the woodstove
Ariel
January 25th, 2004 at 2:57 pm
Soundgarden (the art installation, not the band) is eerie and amazing. I went on a date once where we snuck over a fence to stand and listen to it. Fantastical! Unfortunately, it’s also in terrible disrepair these days. Sad.
yara
January 25th, 2004 at 11:29 pm
if you mail ben (nobodyatglitchpopdotnet), he can tell you where the giant flight of stairs down the side of capitol hill is. once you’ve mastered the tower, you can tackle the stairs, which go up and down the lake union side and aren’t too far from the park. he used to make his x-country team run them!
lee
January 26th, 2004 at 3:41 am
Or - for a really good time - you can LIVE on the seventh floor of your apartment building, without an elevator. Try taking all the groceries up in one go. That’s enough daily exercise for yours truly.