Philadelphia native climbing art museum steps 1,000 times to honor his brother, inspire others
By Madeleine Wright, Mike Spatocco
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PHILADELPHIA (KYW) — A Philadelphia native is attempting to break a record by running up and down the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art 1,000 times.
James Resnick, originally from Northeast Philly and now living in Los Angeles, has been training for six months. He began his laps on Thursday at 8 p.m. and is expecting to wrap up on Saturday at noon.
“My inspiration is my brother [Sammy],” Resnick said. “He was in a bad accident 22 years ago and he’s never complained about his situation.”
Resnick said if his brother Sammy could run the “Rocky” steps, he would. But the car crash left Sammy paralyzed and unable to walk without assistance.
Resnick said he is doing this to show others that they can persevere in the face of adversity.
“This city is about heart and he [Sammy] really inspired me to come out here and show everybody what Philly is about,” Resnick said.
Besides brotherly love, his goal is to inspire others to be a better version of themselves.
Each lap consists of 72 steps up and 72 steps down, for a total of 144 steps, Resnick said. So a thousand laps on the Rocky steps means 144,000 steps.
His girlfriend Jenny Yi is cheering him on every step of the way.
“I’m excited,” Yi said. “I hope everyone else has the same type of endurance as well, especially when you’re going through hard times and things like that.”
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