Next time you find yourself grumbling about a broken elevator, consider Nick Wirsching.
On Sunday, the 22-year-old West Chicago man climbed the stairs at the Sears Tower four times — that’s 8,436 steps — voluntarily.
The feat set a record for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, which hosts the Go Vertical Chicago event every year as a cancer research fundraiser.
“It’s an extreme event,” said Katie Levine, director of development for the foundation. “But he wasn’t out of breath, he wasn’t winded.”
Wirsching — an extreme sports lover who has jumped into frigid Lake Michigan with a Polar Bear Club and traveled from Chicago to Mackinac Island by sailboat regatta — says he did the 103 flights once and decided to just keep on going.
“I climbed to the top, and thought, ‘You know, really, I’ve got nothing else to do,’ ” said Wirsching.
And guess what? He did all four climbs wearing Crocs.
