Stair-racing

**ekw** · January 29th, 2013, 02:31 PM

It's been a long time since I came across an athletic endeavor that appealed to me less than this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/27/ma...imper.html?hpw
The picture at the top of the article is of a race in Bogota, Colombia, elevation ~8600 feet.

I like the comment: "As an orthopedic surgeon, I look forward to replacing their osteoarthritic knees in their early 50s."

**rxleakem** · February 11th, 2013, 05:41 PM

This reminds me of an event that has taken place in our town for the past few years :

Also, the father of the student at work is a high-ranking stair climber in New York - wild stuff indeed!

**Michael Heather** · February 12th, 2013, 08:47 AM

I have heard of these and probably would not compete, but used to run stairs and stadium steps as a training aid. It is very good for cardio, legs, glutes and some other muscle groups. I tried doing some indoor training in hotels, but got overheated very quickly. Not fun. I noticed that they use their arms a lot to pull on the rails.

**ekw** · February 12th, 2013, 05:18 PM

Originally Posted by Michael Heather

I have heard of these and probably would not compete, but used to run stairs and stadium steps as a training aid. It is very good for cardio, legs, glutes and some other muscle groups. I tried doing some indoor training in hotels, but got overheated very quickly. Not fun. I noticed that they use their arms a lot to pull on the rails.

Yeah, I get the usefulness of it as a training aid but the thought of climbing a skyscraper at the elevation of Bogota?

It takes all kinds, though. I could see my brother getting it in his head to try something like this.

**Bendy** · February 12th, 2013, 05:35 PM

There used to be an annual race to the top of the Empire State building.

**slow** · February 14th, 2013, 12:55 AM

Sometimes they have these stair races listed as events on Active.com. Usually the tallest building in a downtown area lets their facility be used for a charity fundraiser. I've thought of doing one but I'd just walk the whole thing...complete not compete.

**habu987** · February 14th, 2013, 06:46 AM

In college (I went to a military school), as a freshman, the upperclassmen would have us run the five stories of stairs in the barracks. For those freshmen who were overweight, they called it the "stairway to health" (I had one classmate lose about 40 pounds freshman year, due at least in part to him doing the "stairway to health" for about 30 minutes a day). I've still got nightmares of regularly running the stairs for 45+ minute at a time in 100+ degree weather with ~100% humidity. Since our barracks were shaped like a square, the stairwells were in each corner and another favored punishment/"exercise" was to have us start at the ground floor, run all the way up and back down in one stairwell, sprint to the next stairwell, and repeat that all the way around. Once back to the first stairwell, run up it and back down, then up to the second floor; after reaching the second floor, sprint to the next stairwell and repeat; repeat that cycle till you've run all the floors.

Yeah...no way in heck am I ever willingly entering a stair running race!

**__steve__** · February 14th, 2013, 09:36 PM

Aruba has a cool 561 step climb called Hooiberg. It's about a 500 foot elevation gain to the peak and on a clear day up there, you can veiw Venezuela.

Whenever we visit we usually take a daily climb. It can be brutal because each step is close to a foot high, but the worst part is coming back down after you sprinted up. It's been a couple years but I think I did it in 4 something