Ivan Makarov Blog

Glad to report, I survived climbing 72 flights of stairs this Saturday, as part of the fund raising event for Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that took place in San Francisco (I wrote about it earlier here). Jackson, Maks’ friend who has Cystic Fibrosis, and his dad Brett came along too and we did this thing together (as in climbing the stairs with our kids). Looking back, we’re glad we took our kids with us on the climb because it gave us an excuse to go at a slower pace. Besides, our kids decided they didn’t want to take it easy either, and both of them climbed at least 10 flights of stairs all on their own. In fact, there was a point when Maks was upset I wanted to carry him instead of allowing him to climb the stairs himself. What a trooper.

As for the fund raising itself, I was amazed at the generosity of people who donated so much. In two short weeks, I was able to raise over $2,500 that was donated directly to CFF. Donations came from all over – from family, friends, coworkers, teammates on my swimming team, our friends at Church, from people who read this blog, from contacts on Flickr and on Twitter… I am simply overwhelmed that so many people donated so much in these hard economical times. What surprised me even more was how many people I know have a personal connection to CF through their family or friends. Few people asked me today if it’s too late to donate and it’s not – my webpage will work for a few more months.

Thank you once again for donating to this great cause!

Below are few of the photos from the event.

Off we go.. We only ran for about 30 seconds until we realized we won’t make it to the top at that pace..

My little hero.

The after party at the top of San Francisco.