Over The Edge!

Rappelling off a 25-story building shouldn’t be a problem for someone that used to clean windows on high-rises, right? Wrong.

On October 23rd, I took part in Over the Edge: Richmond, an event that helps raise funds for the Special Olympics of Virginia. The premise is simple: raise enough money and you can rappel off the roof of the SunTrust building in downtown Richmond, which is almost 400 feet tall. Thinking it was going to be a piece of cake, I signed up with no fears at all. But I wasn’t the only one from the PUNCH family to sign up. I was joined by another graphic designer here, Matt Brown, who has created the event’s web animations for the last two years.

The event was limited to 75 rappellers, some of whom raised the charity funds on their own, and some who were sponsored by local businesses. I chose my rappel time a few weeks before the event, and started mentally and physically preparing myself for what I thought was to be a walk in the park.

The morning of the event was crisp and clear, a beautiful day to do anything outside—and perfect rappelling weather. I arrived at the SunTrust building about an hour and a half before my scheduled time so that I could take part in the required practice rappel off the neighboring parking garage, which was a mere two stories. I met up with the fine folks from River City Rappel, who were helping out with all of the actual rappelling details. I got suited up with my helmet, fitted for my body harness, and given a walkie-talkie (in case of emergency!). We made our way to the practice rappel, got a thorough run through of how the equipment works, and one by one descended from the deck of the parking garage to the ground. Simple, right?

Afterwards, we finally made our way up to the roof of the SunTrust building. Upon exiting the rooftop door, I had a clear sight of miles and miles of Richmond. The view was incredible, one that I have never seen of the city, and I had a hard time talking to others on the roof because I just wanted to admire the landscape before me.

As the time grew nearer for me to prepare my descent, I was increasingly more nervous. Not because I was afraid the equipment would fail, but because it had been so long since I had done anything like this. My nerves had finally struck. But watching the previous rappelers go over the side helped to calmed my fears.

Finally, I was up. I met with more pros from River City Rappel, and got another quick tutorial on how everything worked. I walked to the ledge, which was only about a half foot high, and got locked in to all of the equipment that was necessary for my descent. Everything was extremely well put together, with more safety lines than you could imagine. I got hooked into everything, turned my back to the street 25 stories below me, and began feeding the rope through my descent device. The rope felt like it weighed 500 pounds to lift, but slowly I was able to make my way past the rooftop and down onto the face of the building. It was at this point that I could hear the crowd down on the street cheering and shouting. Hearing the cheers gave me the rush of adrenaline that got me past the fear I was experiencing, and I started to make progress down.

The further down I got, the less my nerves got to me. I could distinctly hear my friends down on the sidewalk, along with the rest of the crowd, yelling and chanting. It was at that point that I lost all nervousness and felt excited and proud. It seemed like it took forever, but as I slowly lowered myself on to the sidewalk, I was welcomed by a great, receptive crowd.

I can’t say enough about the people that turned out for this event. They were truly behind each and every participant. Also everyone involved in the event was great and you could really tell they were excited to be helping out a great cause. Will I do it again next year? We’ll see. But I’d certainly advise anybody else to give it a shot. It’s a good time for a great cause.