Vertically-Challenged

8th November 2005, Singapore - The latest title to hit The NewsStan(d) is "Dizzying Heights" by Stanley Leong. Decades after the release of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", this inspiring entry celebrates the human spirit of conquest, life and lightheadedness. I never quite imagined stairwells to go on forever till I committed myself to a Sunday sprint...mind you not your everyday run. It was a tall order (pun intended) for a vertically-challenged to challenge himself vertically (more pun intended). So it was at the Swissotel The Stamford that I took in in one glance and said to myself, "No big deal". So there I was huffing and puffing up my first ever Vertical Marathon. Remember how in an earlier entry I was talking about knees? Well I figured if my knees weren't giving up the ghost yet, might as well put them to good use while the joints are still holding up well.

So after the flag-off and one thousand three hundred and thirty-nine steps later, I was standing proud atop Southeast Asia's tallest hotel, all 73-storeys of it on the helipad. It was breathtaking and I never knew one could see the ends of the island just standing there and doing a three-sixty.

The winds were gusty up there so pardon the hairdo. So if it's 12:05 mins this year, I wonder if I'd want to challenge myself for a quicker time in 2006. We'll wait and see.