Flight Club Seattle

OK, I’m having a little fun with this one. I’m going to predict the top ten times and places for the upcoming stair race this Sunday, 10/23/11.

Why is this so fun for me? Because it’s a new building that none of us have done yet, so we have no baseline times. New stairwells can be very unpredictable and 51 stories in one building can be up to couple minutes different than 51 stories in another building, so I’m going out on a limb predicting placings and times here before the race.

This climb is 51 stories and the floors are pretty standard. It’s 1010 steps, so I think I can estimate pretty close with my world-ranked step brothers and step sisters because I know how fast they are in other climbs.

This is a relatively short climb too, so certain sprint-climbers like (more…)

Wow, those are long floors! The staircase is quite strange as well. There are lots of weird turns, landings, rails etc. that make it impossible to get a rhythm going. This race is all heart. You just have to gut it out.

The X Gym/West Coast Labels team did it again though. We took 8 of the top 10 places as well as 1st, 2nd and 3rd for both men and women! Justin won it for the men and Kourtney won it for the women, edging out #1 world ranked stairclimber Kristen Frey by only four seconds, to set the new course record.

For the full race results, go here: https://www.runraceresults.com/Secure/RaceResults.cfm?ID=RCPJ2011

To see the race, the fun and the festivities, check out the video:

If you are a tower runner and would like to study the staircase in real time for your own planning purposes, see this video:

Allrightythen, so the X Gym stomped another stair climb. No big surprise I guess. No big surprise either that our team members reset to course records too. Justin Stewart got it for the males and Kourtney Dexter got it for the females. I did well too, taking a (distant) 2nd place overall behind the my cyborg teammate, Justin. Michael Karlin (pictured here far left) won his age group as well, running his fastest time to date up this Bennington monstrosity.

Tim Van Orden was only 9 seconds slower than his best time up this staircase, despite racing in the New England trail running championships – and WINNING the masters division by the way, making him the state champ. Then he ran from that finish line to his car, drove an hour to Bennington, hopped back out of his car and ran up the monument (so he missed picture time).

See full results here: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/11/vt/May21_Climbt_set1.shtml

The Columbia Tower race in Seattle this year was host to a real “Who’s Who” among world class tower runners. Sean Stephens-Whale ended up winning it again for the X Gym team and for his third straight year, breaking his own course record from last year. The next X Gym runner, Kevin Crossman, placed second, followed by another X Gym team member, Jesse Berg, who placed 3rd and then followed closely by the next X Gym runner, Tim Van Orden, who took 4th overall. John Osborn and Brian Crossman also made it in the top 10 overall, to give the X Gym 6 of the top 10 fastest times among 3,315 racers – the largest turnout of any stair race on the planet.

The X Gym women also smoked it with 4 in the top 10, namely Kourtney Dexter, who beat her own course record, Sandra Nunez and Kacie Fisher, all finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall for women. Sheila Klein also made it in the top 10 overall, and I should also mention/brag that she’s (more…)

Holy vertical Batman, that was a serious tower!The Stratosphere race in Vegas was quite an event. This is the highest elevation gain of any stair race west of the Mississippi and the most “floors,” of any race in the world (at 108), but then again, Vegas exaggerates.

While this race does indeed span 1,455 steps, the stairs are metal, which is quite a bit easier to climb than most buildings which have cement stairs. There are also half the landings of the typical building, because the Strat staircase has longer spans. This means it has half the turns too, which makes it a super fast race for its height.

The climb times in fact, are comparable to the Columbia Tower in Seattle, which lists only 69 floors for its race, which really shows what a fast course the Stratosphere is.

It still kicked my fanny though! I was writhing around on the floor in pain (like I usually do) for a good 5 minutes after I was done, and the competition was so good there, I could only squeak out a 7th place finish overall.

I was a pleasure though, to get beat by some pretty amazing tower runners. Kevin Crossman (#10 in the world last year) won it this year and tied to course record. Javier Santiago (#2 in the world) came in second, Rolf Majcen (#5 in the world) came in 3rd and Jesse Berg (#4 in the world) placed 4th.

Some ninja climber named Matt Novakovich came in 5th, and I ended up slipping in between the fittest couple in Vegas by finishing just after Michael Schramm and just ahead of Erica Schramm, who was last year’s winner and course record setter for women.

Erica smashed her own record by almost a minute to set the new record for 2011. Our own Kourtney Dexter also smashed the 2010 record, but not quite as much as Erica did, who ended up nipping Kourtney by 9 seconds. Kourtney isn’t used to placing second, but she sure was honored to race with the likes of Erica.

For complete 2011 “Scale the Strat” race results, click here.

A newcomer to stair climbing smoked us all at this climb, so hats off to 23 year old Justin Stewart, a local track star from Springfield, who sprinted up the 30 floor Hilton in 2 minutes and 21 seconds!

Terry Purcell, the legend, who has won more stair races than any other racer in the world, came in 2nd with a time of 2:30. He didn’t stop there however. He kept climbing the building for the next hour, to take part in the the “ultimate climb” event and ended up winning that with 12 climbs total!

John Ozborn, still a rookie, but skyrocketing faster than any other stair racer I have heard of, came in 3rd with a time of 2:34. He also went on to climb for an hour, completing the course 11 times. Counting the climb he did with his 8 year old son moments later, he also ascended the Hilton 12 times for the day.

I, (PJ Glassey) did my best and ran a time of 2:39 to take 4th place overall. Since I’m shooting all my races this year with a headcam in order to build a library of stairwells for other racers to reference, the vid of my climb can be seen below.

My other stepbrother, Brady Renshaw, took 6th overall with a time of 2:50 and also kept climbing for an hour to take 2nd overall in the ultimate climb.

My stepsister Kristin Frey was the standout star of the day by winning the overall fastest time for women (3:20), which placed 15th overall by the way, among the 400+ racers that turned out for this event, INCLUDING all the DUDES ! She went on to win the ultimate climb for women as well, proving her place of 3rd in the world last year was no fluke!

To see it all for yourself, Check out the vid below:

First of all, props to Team Lucy, led by Joe Gray, the US mountain running champion and his friends for beating us! The X Gym  team had a nice winning streak (13 in a row to be exact) until Joe’s mountain running legs showed up with his ninja team mates. Nice work Team Lucy!

God still smiled big on the X Gym however, and blessed us with runners who took 6 of the top ten overall fastest times for men and 5 of the top ten for women. Jamelah also won overall for women, and our own Kevin Crossman took 2nd and 4th for men, because he is insane and felt the need to race it twice.

Here are some more highlights:

• Jordan Sahlberg took 5th overall with a time of 6:24
• I (PJ) took 6th with 6:37
• Mike Walter took 10th with 7:20
• Ann Stover took 4th overall for women with 9:17
• Veronika Tague took 6th with 9:19
• Anne Gerry took 7th with 9:22
• Heidi Bork took 9th with 9:40
• Mike Gavareski led the relay team to victory (once again)
• X Gym won the fastest gym trophy (again – of course)

My personal favorite story is about Lou (72 years young) and Nicole (65 years young), who raced with their grandson Logan (6 years old) and each of them won their age groups!

Here are the full official race results:

http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=17573#racetop

Check it all out with the video below:

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a video must be worth a bajillion, right? Well I certainly hope so, because I could write a bajillion words about the recent Figueroa at Wilshire race earlier this month in LA and I don’t have the time or the fingers for that many words.

I can say that the picture to the left is worth more than 1000 steps for sure! It was a bugger, and at only 51 floors, it was a longer and higher race than the 56 WaMu race I did two days prior. Each building is unique and there really is no such thing as a “standard” stairwell. I’m still trying to figure out a way to compare races, using vertical feet gained or some other “objective” metric, but there is really no substitute for just doing it.

I will also say that this race was a total blast (except for the actual race part, which is always awful beyond words) and I can’t wait to hook up again with all my stepbrothers and step sisters at the next one!

This vid covers it all:

And this vid shows you what earning 3rd place looks like. FYI – Both vids begin with the same scene, but skip to :45 in this one and you will see the difference:

First of all, the race went well for the most part. I was in better shape than last year, so despite all the complications, I was only 15 seconds slower, got 6th place overall, and won my division – so there’s not a lot to complain about. But I did learn some good lessons that I want to pass along.  Here’s the tall and the short of it: what I learned, and how I will do better next time.

1. Don’t be afraid to pass aggressively when necessary. Stair climbing sometimes needs to be a contact sport. This year, I started with the rest of the climbers in my age division  instead of the elite category. This put me in the middle of the crowd instead of at the front of the race with no one to pass. I got stuck behind some stubborn folks this time and that slowed me down. After the race I was told by some more experienced climbers that after two requests to pass with no cooperation, I just need to get physical and barge my way through.
2. Be sure to have at least 10 minutes to prepare at the starting line. I had every intention to mentally prepare, tie my shoes tighter, put on my head cam, gloves, set my pacing timer and drink some water – but because I was goofing off with friends instead, I had to jump into the line a the last minute and only got about half that stuff done right. The officials told me that I had to take off my head cam and that threw me off a couple steps, which I could have dealt with had I left enough time to prepare for the start.
3. Write down your race day routine and nutrition, slow down, leave plenty of time and follow the plan. I had it all planned out, but left the house in a hurry and forgot all my special race-day food. BIG mistake! It’s true – haste makes waste!
4. Try only one new thing each race. I tried a few new experiments this time, so I couldn’t tell which one helped or hindered my results. It’s always tempting to throw in a bunch of things that you think will help, but it’s not scientific and you’ll never be able to refine your routine and plan for next time.
5. Keep your bag with you at all times. I put my bag down to receive my medal, and then got distracted with my buddies winning their medals and lost track of my bag full of stuff, which included a friend’s camera and another friend’s phone. I ended up getting the bag back later, but for a few hours it was a horrible feeling thinking I’d lost them.
6. Take pictures with your own camera. I was hoping to get copies of pics from other people I knew who took pictures, but that takes too long.  This time when I got back home I had the opportunity to provide pictures to local newspapers, but I couldn’t gather them together in time.
7. Pray. I saved the best lesson for last. I am  Christian, so that gives me access to the best power source in the universe. God also wants me to succeed, but He likes me to ask. When I forget, like I did here, He pretty much lets me do it my own, and that never turns out as well.

For official results click here:

To see the video and results of this climb, check it out below.

I’ve been getting high quite a bit lately, as well as pressuring many of my friends to get high with me. I get high every Tuesday and Friday mornings, and usually every Saturday, but last week I got really high on Friday afternoon with my new ‘step’ brother, Jubal Flagg.

Jubal and I got high in Bellevue last Friday – twice  in less than half an hour -  with only a small amount of time between highs. Jubal is a local celebrity and part of the morning show crew on Kiss 106.1 FM, Seattle’s top radio station. Will this put his job at stake? He’s not worried about it.

I’m not worried about getting high so often either. I’m actually quite proud of my addiction, and want to drag as many people into it as possible. Check out what I mean here:

Do you want to get high with us too? We would love you to join us. You can register here. If you want to learn how to get high as fast as possible, check out this page. Just be warned though. It’s addicting!

-PJ Glassey