The Philadelphia Climbing Art Museum steps 1,000 times to honor its brother and inspire others

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A Philadelphia man is trying to break a record by running up and down the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art 1,000 times.

James Resnick, originally from Northeast Philadelphia and now living in Los Angeles, has been training for six months. He started his laps on Thursday at 8 p.m. and expects to finish on Saturday at 12 p.m.

“My inspiration is my brother (Sammy),” Resnick said. “He had a serious accident 22 years ago and never complained about his situation.”

Resnick said that if his brother Sammy could run up the stairs “Rocky”, he would do it. However, a car accident left Sammy paralyzed and unable to walk without assistance.

Resnick said he does it to show others that they can persevere in the face of adversity.

“This city has heart and he (Sammy) really inspired me to come here and show everyone what Philly is about,” Resnick said.

In addition to brotherly love, his goal is to inspire others to be better versions of themselves.

Each lap consists of 72 steps up and 72 steps down, for a total of 144 steps, Resnick said. So one thousand laps up the Rocky stairs equals 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 resilience, especially when you’re going through hard times and things like that.”