Spencer Sterritt in the final stretch of the Blueback Stairs, living out the last gasp of his athletic potential. (Alex Rawnsley/Spencer Sterritt)

By Spencer Sterritt

2020 in review

Our Favourite Stories of 2020: Running up those stairs

Dec 18, 2020 | 5:52 PM

NANAIMO — In the wake of such a grueling year, I decided to go back and find something fun from before COVID-19 times for my favourite story of the year.

My choice is also the most demanding story I wrote all year. Not mentally or emotionally, because nothing can compare to the early grind of the pandemic when every story we wrote was about something shutting down.

This was the most physically demanding story of my career.

The Blueback Stairs were restored in January after falling into disrepair over previous years due to the intense coastal weather.

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The stairs are incredibly popular and I knew the story would do well on social media, but I thought it needed something more to really pop.

I’d always heard people would run the stairs and could do it multiple times, no matter the weather.

This astounded me. I’m not the most unfit person, but the idea of running those stairs daunted me. Especially to do it more than once.

As you can see in the video, I couldn’t even do it once without stopping.

Thankfully the City had designed the stairs to have two rest stops for people like me to catch their breath.

My inexperience with running is on full display in the video. I was wearing athletic pants and running shoes, so I was appropriate from the waist down. Above that though, I was wearing a pullover sweater. To this day I still don’t know why, but it was a terrible idea.

The real joy of the story came after I summited the steps and returned to the office.

The video we posted did incredibly well and people engaged with it in a positive way, which doesn’t always happen with my stories concerning homelessness, social disorder and local politics.

The night of the video being posted, I was even recognized at a bar as the guy who had a blast running the stairs.

Roughly two months later all of Canada was shut down. By March 15, it already felt like a lifetime since I’d run the Blueback stairs and had fun doing it.

Though the pandemic is easing with the arrival of vaccines, life is still very difficult as 2020 comes to a close.

For a bit of early year cheer, I’ll be running the Blueback stairs again to see if it’s any easier.

Who knows, maybe I’ll do the Seabold stairs too?

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @SpencerSterritt