When Lisa Defenbaugh races up the stairs of Seattle’s tallest building, dressed in a firefighter’s heavy pants, jacket and rubber boots, there is a moment when the exertion of wearing 50 pounds of safety gear to climb more than 1,300 stairs becomes nearly overwhelming.
It’s at these moments that she thinks of her grandmother, Madge Salter, who helped raise her and whose example taught her to “suck it up” — to always persevere. Defenbaugh’s grandmother died of leukemia in 1989 at age 70.
Sunday marked the fifth time Defenbaugh, a Lake Stevens firefighter, participated in the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The annual event is held at Seattle’s Columbia Tower.
Defenbaugh, 42, placed fifth among women over 40 in the event on Sunday. She made the climb in 26 minutes, 33 seconds.
“I’m happy with it. It felt good this year,” Defenbaugh said Sunday afternoon. “I had one year when it was beyond brutal.”
Defenbaugh was one of 84 firefighters from Snohomish and Island counties participating in Sunday’s stair climb. Overall, a record 1,446 firefighters, some from as far away as New Zealand, participated. Of those, 579 finished — 530 men and 49 women.
Finishing times ranged from 11 minutes, 37 seconds for Zach Schade of the Seattle Fire Department to 1 hour, 12 minutes.
This was Defenbaugh’s second-best time of the five, her previous best being a little over 25 minutes. She hadn’t trained any harder this year than before, she said, but believes not having to spend much time behind a desk recently may have helped.
While Defenbaugh was happy with her time, “that’s not what it’s really about for me. It’s about raising money to make it better for other people.”
Defenbaugh participates in memory of her grandmother.
“I think about her very vividly and what she would think,” Defenbaugh said before Sunday’s race. “I’m hoping and praying that what I’m doing will make other people’s experience less devastating.”
There’s a sense of pride among firefighters in completing the event, Defenbaugh said, as well as a sense of competition.
But halfway up, “you’re already exhausted,” she said. “You go beyond sweating,” Defenbaugh said of how it feels like to run up 69 stories in a firefighter’s bunker gear. “I feel totally depleted when I’m done.”
She trains for the events by putting on a weight vest and sweatshirt when before hitting the step machines at the gym.
It barely raises an eyebrow among those working out nearby — many are firefighters, too. “Oh you’re doing the stair climb,” they say.
Defenbaugh led a nine-member team from the Lake Stevens Fire Department, which also dedicated the climb to fellow paramedic Kurt Middleton. He was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common type of skin cancer, last year. He has just returned to work.
Defenbaugh said she’s had a lifelong interest in being a firefighter. Her dad often took her to the fire station in Surrey, B.C., where he was a volunteer.
“My dad tells me I was always in awe of fire trucks,” she said.
But it wasn’t until 2002, then a single mom with two children, that she began working part-time at the Lake Stevens department.
For three and a half years, she balanced that part-time job with full-time work elsewhere. In August 2006, she got the call offering her a full-time position with the fire department.
Sunday’s event won’t be the last time Defenbaugh ascends the Columbia Center tower this year.
On March 16, she plans to participate in the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s stair climb as part of a team that includes the wives of three firefighters. That fundraiser is open to the public.
“I just want to see how much easier — well, maybe I should say different — it is without all the gear,” she said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
Other participating firefighters
Everett Fire Department’s Brent Molsberry and Snohomish County Fire District 1 firefighter Melissa Reimer were the top Snohomish County-area finishers at Sunday’s Scott Firefighter Stairclimb at Seattle’s Columbia Center.
Molsberry, 28, who lives in Bellingham, climbed 1,311 stairs — 69 floors in 12 minutes, 11 seconds for fifth place overall. Jack Murrin, 38, an Everett firefighter who lives in Arlington, climbed to the second best area time of 13 minutes, 38 seconds. He finished 13th overall.
Reimer, 27, of Everett finished in 21 minutes, 47 seconds. She finished 680th overall.
Eighty-four firefighters from Camano Island Fire, Edmonds Fire District, Everett Fire Department Local 46, Hat Island Fire Department, Lake Stevens Fire, Marysville Fire District, Mukilteo Fire Department, North Whidbey Fire and Rescue, Snohomish County Fire District 1, Snohomish County Fire District 17, Snohomish County Fire District 4, and South Whidbey Fire and Rescue participated in the annual climb.
On the Web
For more information on the 22nd annual Big Climb, a public fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at Columbia Center in Seattle, go to www.bigclimb.org.
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