One thousand, seven hundred and 76 steps, straight up Toronto’s CN Tower, in 13 minutes and 51 seconds.
And Lexie Ward of Springwater Township isn’t a runner.
Yet the 28-year-old had the best time for women during the weekend at the World Wildlife Fund Climb for Nature.
“I was doing every other step and then I was using my hands to pull myself up the railing as well,” she explained of her speed. “Very early on, I figured out the rhythm of step with the left foot, reach with the right hand and then alternate every other step and just go, and don’t slow down.
“Even when I wanted to slow down, don’t slow down. It really was total body, which reduced the fatigue whereas a lot of climbers would use their hip flexors and calves and that wears out really, really quickly.”
Ward said climbing the CN Tower has always been kind of a bucket-list thing for her, and her goal was to reach the top in less than 15 minutes.
“I kept a constant pace,” she said of her Sunday morning climb. “I wasn’t trying to run as fast as I could, just tortoise versus hare, a slow and steady kind of speed wins the race, and it worked.
“It’s a winding staircase where it’s a left and then another left, then another left, all the way up.”
Ward is a member of ‘Lady The FUp Team’, which she describes as an online coaching community. Six of its members did the CN Tower stair climb, raising $750 for the World Wildlife Fund. She said more than 5,000 people made the climbs this past weekend, and raised $1.36 million for conservation efforts that will help protect and restore nature, reverse wildlife loss and fight climate change.
“I have always loved what the World Wildlife Fund stands for and what they support with climate change and nature,” Ward said. “So putting the two together and having that opportunity was really exciting.”
Just because she isn’t a runner, however, don’t get the idea Ward isn’t in shape.
Her main focus in the past six months has been preparing for a professional fitness and physique competition. Part of that preparation is doing cardio essentially every day, she said, which she does on the StairMaster.
“So I figured I’m this physically conditioned, why not go (climb the CN Tower) for the first time, and it paid off,” Ward said.
A national gymnast for 12 years, the impact of injuries to her hips and knees made running a non-starter.
“I’m much more into the fitness and weightlifting aspect, but part of us getting lean for fitness competitions is doing steady-state cardio and the StairMaster has always been my cardio of choice,” she said.
Ward is now heading to an August world championship in Las Vegas for physique competition.
So climbing the CN Tower was anything but a stop along the way.
