Today marked my first race of 2010! This one was a completely unconventional race for me, in that it was a stair climb up to the top of the Wells Fargo Center in downtown Salt Lake City. At 23-floors high, the Wells Fargo Center is currently the tallest building in downtown Salt Lake City. Considering that my only experience at running stairs is running up and down the football bleachers at local high schools, I was a little unsure how many stairs I could climb consistently without my legs just giving out. Consequently, my goal was to accomplish 5-10 trips to the top of the tower.
I commenced my day by completing my non-running workout (300 sit-ups and 30 push-ups) then taking the Trax train to the Temple Square area of town where I jogged 1.4 miles down to the Wells Fargo Center. Since I purchased my heart-rate monitor, I realized that my heart beats much faster during my morning runs; therefore, the purpose of this warm-up run was to just to get my heart beating so it would not beat too rapidly during my first few climbs.
After checking in my warm-up gear and doing some stretching, I decided to get the climbing started. The starting gate was the fire exit in front of the building (the nice cool morning air felt great every time I started one of my interval climbs). My first run to the top actually felt really good. In fact I was focused so much on climbing the stairs in front of me that I skipped the 23rd-floor exit from the stairwell and started to climb to the rooftop. However, I quickly realized my mistake and backtracked to the finish line, which only cost me a few seconds. Completing my first trip to the top in 4:28, I took the elevator back down to the starting line to continue the fun.
Like most of my interval training, near the completion of my second climb to the top, I started to question how many climbs I could actually complete. Halfway to the top of my third climb, I was wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. However, I soon regained focus and developed a consistent rhythm of breathing, leaning slightly forward, and picking my feet up. Before long, I completed my goal of ten climbs and continued on to complete a total of fifteen climbs in a little less than two hours. Everyone that I ran across in the stairwell was really supportive and kept me going (one of the photographers stated, “you are a brute for punishment” which was an interesting description that stuck in my mind). My splits for these climbs were as follows: 4:28, 4:51, 4:44, 5:02, 4:56, 5:21, 5:08, 4:57, 5:00, 4:52, 5:02, 5:02, 5:05, 4:57, and 4:56 (average: 4:56). Not too bad of a range (i.e., 4:28-5:21) considering the traffic on the narrow stairwells slows you down at times. Also, the range on my beats per minute according to my hear-rate monitor was 165-174.
After climbing 345 flights (8,970 stairs, 6,330 feet), I did not feel that bad and still had enough energy to take a nice 12.2-mile jog back home along the Salt Lake Marathon course (during the last 5k of the long and slow distance run, my legs were absolutely tired). I am absolutely up for participating in this race again in 2011. It was a really fun event that involved a number of firefighters from around the state ran to the top with all of their gear (these guys and gals are awesome and truly heroic), a costume contest (my favorite was the lady trucking up the steps dressed like a pioneer), mayor Ralph Becker of Salt Lake City ran to the top, and famous local bookseller Ken Sander climbed the tower. Plus, lots of money was raised for the American Lung Association of Utah! I cannot wait for 2011 Fight for Air Climb!!! | 