How quickly can you climb 1642 stairs and 88 floors?
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Orange’s Meg Reeves is hoping to be the fastest person to the top of Melbourne’s Eureka Tower during the 10th annual Eureka Climb Challenge on Sunday.
The annual challenge raised $260,000 for the charities Whitelion and Interplast last year. Mrs Reeves said climbing to the tower’s top could take between eight and 12 minutes.
She said training was tough with Orange having few tall buildings.
“I train at Mount Canobolas and use the pinnacle stairs but that’s only three minutes,” Mrs Reeve said.
She regularly spends an hour at the gym running to help prepare.
Many runners in the elite division train in the buildings they live and work in and use the handrails to haul themselves up when their legs are fatigued.
Mrs Reeves said she’d be doing it the hard way without relying on the handrail.
Mrs Reeves said she had previously been a hockey player but took up running with her family, while her husband prefers ultra-marathons, she prefers to climb higher.
“I’m a bit mad,” Mrs Reeves joked.
“I love a vertical race, whether it’s up a mountain or a tower,” she said.
Previously she’s climbed Sydney Tower and Q1 on the Gold Coast plus a number of European mountain climb races.
VIDEO: 10th annual Eureka Climb 2017
Reaching the top provided a feeling of “elation”.
“You work so hard and get to the top and then there’s this cracking view,” she said.