Record-tying twenty circuits of stairs ran in the Bunker Hill Monument for the thirteenth time after three days of intense workouts
Monday 10/12/26
Yesterday was the last day of the favorable (for me) summer hours for the Bunker Hill Monument. There are only summer and winter hours. The Monument opens at 10 AM with the former and 1 PM with the latter. My days start very early, so with those winter hours that can mean I've been up and working for twelve hours before I head to Charlestown.
It's such a short period of time each year when conditions are ideal for what I do over there. That is, when the weather is conducive to stair running and I'm able to go in earlier. We're talking, for the most part, some of May, maybe a bit into June, and then September, but not necessarily all of it, and a few days in October.
Thus, I try and make the most of September/October. If I've been doing what I'm supposed to do, my fitness should be decent after working hard in those summer conditions. You push through the heat and humidity. Those can make for frustrating days because you're not able to do as well as you want to and maybe you blame yourself like I do. It can be hard to get a read on where you're at. It's sort of nebulous but you go back the next day and try again, hoping that when the weather breaks you'll see that you're doing just fine and maybe be pleasantly surprised.
Four weeks ago, I had that record-setting week where I did sixty circuits across the five days (Wednesday to Sunday) the Monument is open, with twenty circuits on my birthday. Then, I didn't do well the next week, going to Charlestown three times and running a total of eleven circuits. I bounced back some the week after, doing twenty five circuits.
Then I began this past week by not going to Charlestown on Wednesday. I thought maybe the Monument would be open today for Columbus Day (it isn't) and I'd still have five days to have a strong finish to the season of the good hours. As I mentioned, on Thursday I ran ten circuits in the Monument. I had a bigger number in mind, but stood down. The ten wasn't easy. Then on Friday and Saturday I did the same, knowing I wouldn't have the Monday by then. Got my push-ups down as well, and walked six miles on Saturday.
That left yesterday. Last day of season. New season starts this Wednesday. Part of the one-year season for me, which began 3/11, in which I'm supposed to run 1000 circuits of Monument stairs. I'm supposed to run stairs elsewhere, too, but those don't count towards this goal/directive. Anyway, I arrived atop the hill early yesterday. To be there and think. Was a grayish morning. A few less people are out on those in October. Had on shorts and a T-shirt with my Great Woods sweatshirt over it. Wasn't warm enough for just the T-shirt.
They opened and I was the first one in. No monkeying around. The thinking was to run twenty circuits of stairs, however long it took. Even if I had to do it in segments. I'd just done thirty over the prior three days. I have never tried to run twenty circuits after anything like that. A few weeks ago, I did the twenty after having done ten the day before, and that was a first.
Normally when I have these monster days, it's after two, three, or even more days off. Or after the standard set of five circuits the day before. There's an attrition factor with your legs. This goes for everyone. The person who hardly ever moves or the professional athlete. If you ran a marathon on Saturday, it's going to be a lot harder to run another marathon the next day.
It was going okay for a while. Not some peak performance or anything. You break this down--mentally, anyway--into groups of five. The first five you just want to get through. They don't feel fulfilling or like they're helping your cause. Almost as if they're the preface rather than the book proper. Once they're done, it feels more like you're adding on, building. Your goal is double digits. Once you get to double digits, then you can think about paring down, a countdown, because you're in the single digits now. This hard thing you're trying to do is more psychologically doable.
My entire life consists of little things like this, these little ways of thinking, whether that's to run twenty circuits of stairs or not kill myself for another day and get to the next day where I start over with these types of techniques. That's how awful this is right now and will almost certainly remain, save to keep getting worse and harder.
I got to ten and I was...pretty well cooked. Nothing in my legs. The thirty over the three days, the ten of just then, caught up with me. I thought, yeah, this is as far as we go. But I also didn't want to give up. Last day of the season, and all. I was also trying to do this within a certain amount of time. I'm pretty sure--but not certain--that the winter hours are shorter this year by a half hour. That is, the Monument is only open three hours from 1 to 4, and I believe it was 1 to 4:30 last year, but I could be wrong.
It takes quite a while to run twenty circuits of stairs. Hours. Doing it in three is hard. Or, hard on top of hard, if you prefer. It was also in my mind that I might not be able to have a twenty circuit day again until May. This is a strange way for me to think, considering how I went from 2019 to 2025 without having any twenty circuit days and this was fine, but I get how I get.
I decided to try and stick around. Pull down the expectations. Just be there and move my feet. Maybe that meant one more circuit, two, who knows. So I did eleven. Told myself, "Whatever the pace is, the pace is. If you want to take a break, take a break. You just did thirty coming into today. Let's just see, no pressure." Then I did twelve, then thirteen.
You get up to thirteen, then that fifteen is in view. If you get to fifteen, then it's like the final countdown, though those last five circuits can be brutal. Still, it's five. Five becomes three. You're right there.
I stepped out after fifteen circuits to sit down for a few minutes and, more importantly, to try and locate some water. Yes, I know I'd said I'd start bringing a water bottle with me, but I haven't. At the museum across the street, there's a place where you can fill up your water bottle. It has a censor that starts the flow. Well, I cupped my hands in front of the censor and tried to drink a few mouthfuls that way. It didn't go great, but it was something.
Then I went back to finish off those last five and got my twenty circuits in after all in three hours even with the pause. I feel like this was really a banner day for me on the fitness front. You're probably doing okay if you can log ten circuits three days in a row and then manage to have a twenty circuit day. This resulted in a four week total of 146 circuits, and I'm now up to 841 circuits since March 11.
Stairs are a microcosm for me. In this instance, of my will. My discipline. My strength. Stairs aren't just stairs in my world. Stairs aren't just stairs if you understand stairs. They're ideas, tests, challenges, mirrors, a measuring device when it comes to attitude, one's heart, one's soul. Revealers of the self, of true nature. Stairs are a philosophy, an art, something that informs art.
An amusing note: near the end, I passed this family of three a couple times: husband, wife, baby. The mother had one of those baby slings. The husband was quite friendly. He immediately realized what I was doing, which is rare, because, well, people are idiots. It shouldn't be hard to deduce that I'm not a tourist doing what everyone else in that Monument is doing. The clues are abundant.
As I was beginning my descent for circuit nineteen--with just the one more to go after that--they were just arriving at the top. I'd gone past them from behind not long before. The man asked me how many laps I was doing, I said twenty, and he said, "Let me shake your hand" and put his hand out.
That was nice. I said, well, I don't think you'd want to--I wasn't exactly fresh and sparkly. Gives you more of an idea--if you needed one--just how twisted and agenda-driven those embittered, (rightfully) self-loathing, pathetic misandrists were back in July. You have to be hell bent on being a total...well, I won't say the word...to behave like that. In addition to being as large a loser as one can be.
Other health things: had quite the score at Haymarket on Saturday. Ready for this? Twelve large red peppers; a box of strawberries; three boxes of raspberries; two boxes of blackberries. Total cost: ten dollars. Even by the standards of Haymarket, you can't do better than that.
Yesterday also marked 3738 days, or 534 weeks, without a drink. I certainly drank a lot post-stairs. Two bottles of Gatorade, four liters of water. No cramping. Didn't require any pickle juice. I was fine after a little while. I could have gone back and done more and, yes, thought about/was on the verge of doing so, despite my rule/policy meant to keep my otherworldly competitiveness in check/from reaching insane levels that I won't exceed twenty circuits in a day.
Instead, I went down to the cafe to have some hot tea and read a nineteenth century ghost story.
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