Flight Club Seattle

X Gym Win Streak Continues!
On April 24^th 2010, the 63 floor race up the AON building in Los Angeles put another bunch of individual ‘Wins’ in the X Gym column and a couple new course records to boot!

• Javier Santiago ended up winning the race with a new course record!
• Tim Van Orden placed 2^nd overall and 1st in his division
• Kevin Crossman took 3^rd overall and 1st in his division
• Mark Trahanovsky grabbed  4^th overall and 1st in his division
• PJ came in 7^th overall and 2nd in his division
• Veronica Stocker won 3^rd overall for women overall and 1st in her division
• Mike Cartmell annihilated the competition in the 60-70 age group, and now owns that new course record as well!

• 5 of the top 10 overall finishers sported the X Gym logo
• 6 of the 8 age groups winners were also flying the X Gym colors, wearing brand new jerseys crafted by Mark Trahanovsky from West Coast Labels. If we had entered racers in the remaining two age groups, I’m sure we would have owned those as well.

Is this world domination getting old? Probably to others. But for us, that’s a resounding “No way!”

About the race

This climb is the 2^nd tallest stair race west of the Mississippi, behind the US Bank tower (also in LA) and ahead of Seattle’s Columbia Tower by a healthy margin. Although the AON climb is only 63 floors, the vertical feet gain is more (due to its longer-than-standard floors), than the 69 story Columbia Tower (due to its shorter-than-standard floors). Elite climbers are typically about 1 minute slower in the AON than the Columbia Tower because of the marked difference in climb height.

The AON staircase is also extremely irregular with switchbacks, hallways, additional stairs on many of the landings, and plenty of other surprises. Because of its inconsistent design, it is impossible to get a rhythm going and it keeps you guessing the whole way up. That makes for nice variety however, and helps keep your mind off the excruciating pain which starts at about halfway into the climb.

The finish line is the coolest thing ever. Up around floor 60, you start to see sunlight. At floor 62, you can see that the finish line is outside on the roof! Once you burst out the top door at floor 63 and (after a few minutes of rest) can breathe again and see straight, you realize that you are standing on the helicopter pad at the 2^nd highest point in LA. This realization took me (PJ) a few minutes to register, because I really pushed it at this race. I needed that recovery time in a big way!

Inside my race

I felt the pain early in this race. The tall floors really took their toll. I was already tired at floor 20 and in pain by floor 30. When I got to floor 45, it was all I could do to muster enough mental strength to keep some semblance of pace, because my speed had dropped off notably. Every cell in my legs were begging me to stop for a quick rest. Your mind plays tricks on you at that point and tries to talk you into wimping out in a big way. Your muscles are screaming for you to take a break and your brain is hearing the warning alarms from all the various body parts that are reporting in that eminent danger is only steps away.

Prayer proved to be a helpful tool, and faith was the driving force that got me to the top. At floor 50 my hearing started to wane. At floor 55 I lost color vision and by floor 58, my peripheral vision started to fade. By floor 60, tunnel vision began to close in, and as I crossed the finish line at floor 63, my field of vision was about the size of a softball.

I am familiar with all these stages, and I have learned that I’m OK as long as my field of vision about the size of a baseball. At that point I have to back off, because that means I only have about 10 seconds left before I black out. The tunnel vision progresses pretty fast once it starts, so by my estimate, I only had about 2 floors left in me before losing consciousness, so I timed it about as good as I could have, for my first climb up this particular building.

I remained standing after crossing the finish line, which is another good sign, but I did have to lean over onto a nearby table to make sure I didn’t fall over. Within about 2 minutes, the oxygen debt headache started, so I had to lie down. The paramedics were great and asked me at least 3 times if I was OK. They supply oxygen for those who need it, but I felt fine as far as my lungs were concerned, so I declined. The research suggests that supplemental oxygen doesn’t help much anyway other than for the placebo effect, so since I know that, there isn’t much sense in it for me.

In case you are wondering – uh, why?

Why do I do this crazy sport you ask? Is it a sick masochistic thing that drives stair racers to put ourselves through this time after time? No, but lots of people ask us that. It’s the love for the sport, the chance to push our absolute physical limits, the discipline in pain management and the challenge of conquering a building that most people wouldn’t even dream of running. That’s what elevators are for, right? The thing that appeals to me the most however, and the reason it keeps getting more fun with each race, is the people. Stair racers are a very unique breed, and some of the nicest folks you could ever meet. They all have at least one screw loose, so that makes for some really fun and interesting characters as well.

The friends I have made in this sport and the bonds created are truly remarkable. I feel like they are more like brothers and sisters than friends, and I am so grateful to all of them for accepting me into their fold. Mark Trahanovsky calls us his “step”brothers and “step”sisters because we all feel this way about each other and share this extraordinary bond. New friends are made every race too, so the family keeps growing.

I had the privilege of “coaching” a new stairclimber via email for this race, which was also a new and fun experience for me. Don found me in the crowd before the race, and it already felt like we were brothers despite the fact that we hadn’t talked at all, other than through email. He ended up winning 9^th place overall, so we were both ecstatic with his results. Don met Mark and many of the other climbers as well, so he is now part of the family and will sport the WCL/X Gym jersey from now on.

Next up

The next race I will attend is a short sprint run up the Bennington monument in Vermont on June 5^th, 2010. This race is more of a social event than anything else. It doesn’t count for world rank points, but it is a great event to get to know other stair racers better. Since the race is only a few hundred feet up and takes only about a minute, nutrition, rest, hydration and other factors really don’t matter. Racers camp out in tents the night before in the park around the monument and exchange stories and memories about this crazy and obscure sport. 2009 was the first year for this race, so this year should bring an even stronger turnout.

Stair racing is certainly not for everyone, but the only way to find out is to give it a try. If you are local to the Seattle area, I can hook you up with some great practice runs. If not, and you want more information on stairclimbs in your area and around the world, as well as current rankings of the top 70 elite stairclimbers in the world, go to www.towerunning.com. For training information and tips, visit the X Gym’s stair page at www.xgym.com/stair

Have you ever wondered how much horsepower you produce when you climb stairs?

Would you like to know how much more you crank out during a sprint than a long climb?

Do you want to know how much more horsepower Jesse Berg pumps out than you do?

Well, it’s actually a pretty easy calculation. all you need to know is your weight, climb time and climb height in vertical feet.

Just click here to get started (or copy and paste the link below into your browser):

http://bit.ly/bkZbz2

I was tempted to write the same title theme as the older posts, using “X Gym Schools Seattle Stair Climbers,” but as our winning streak continues, that’s getting too redundant. God has blessed us with stair legs and the best exercise protocols for strength and endurance, so it’s almost a given that we will continue to dominate this sport. Once again, no other gym could even come close to our results here at the largest stair climb on the planet.

Our team smoked it more than ever this year as the rock-hard thighs from the X Gym crushed three out of three records.

Here’s a snapshot of our undeniable domination:

• Fastest team – setting a new course record
• Fastest male –  Jesse, with a new course record (although the official results differ – see below)
• Fastest female –  Kourtney, with, yep, yet another new course record
• 6 out of the top 8 overall – 4 men and 2 women

Our team spanned ages from 8 to 80, with the oldest woman climber and the youngest climber too.

It keeps getting more and more fun each year. Be sure to join us next year! It’s easy to qualify for being on our team. Just  be an X Gym member, or  train with the X Gym workout DVD, or attend at least one of the X Gym stair climbing boot camps.

The Big Climb is not only the biggest turnout of any climb in the world with 6,000 climbers participating; it is also the best run climb by far. The timing company had some glitches to work out this year however, and Jesse Berg was the most costly casualty. His timing chip wouldn’t read, so they had him go through  the finish multiple times, which screwed up their database, and adding time and costing him the race title and new course record of somewhere in the 7:10 range. The reason it’s of particular importance to Jesse is that he is currently in a battle for #1 in the world (see www.towerrunning.com), so he’s not just your everyday recreational stair racer where it wouldn’t really matter.

Stuff like this happens though, and while the Big Climb race director knows that Jesse won, she couldn’t go against the numbers even though they were flawed. She did pour through the database and found two of the timing errors which helped, but still didn’t give him the time he actually earned. She could have changed it manually, but this would not have been fair to all the other climbers whose times were also messed up. We understand and appreciate her integrity. As long as she is at the helm, we know that future Big Climbs will always be honest and fair, and that she will continue to run the best organized race in the world.

The times are now posted here: http://www.llswa.org/site/DocServer/big_climp_2010_full_results-by_finish_time.pdf?docID=922

Here’s a really cool video shot by Alki X Gym member Bill from tellitproductions.com:

And Jesse’s timing chip fiasco caught on tape: (more…)

Shirley already is!

How’s that for inspirational?

Seems this little experiment proved most people would:

I (PJ) was at a strength conference last weekend in Spokane Washington with my cousin Russ to get continuing education credits for our CSCS certifications, so I had to skip my weekend stair workout with my homies in the Muni building. I was Jonesin’ for some vertical big time, so Russ and I found the tallest building in Spokane – the Wells Fargo building. It was locked up tight though, onnaccounta it’s a bank and it was Saturday (lazy bankers).

Sooooo we went across the street to the Davenport Hotel , which is the 2nd tallest building in Spokane. We were pleasantly surprised however, to discover that although it is 20 feet shorter than the Wells Fargo building, the staircase is 2.5 floors taller. This made it the tallest staircase in Spokane, so that’s even better. We scored!

Russ and I found the stairwell to be locked, and the elevators required keycards, so we put our best puppy dog faces on and begged to use the stairwell. The faces and begging turned out to be unnecessary though, because the people in Spokane (or at least at Hotel Davenport) just aren’t as uptight as Seattleites. They were happy to let us in.

Like most stairwells, you can’t get out except on the bottom floor, so we knew we would have to walk all the way back down. Seein’ as how it was only 22.5 floors, we figured this wouldn’t be too big a deal.

My time to the top was an even 1:40 and Russ was only a minute behind, which was pretty amazing since he weighs 55 pounds more than me and had a bad cold and a nasty cough.

The walk back down was the hardest part and took about 5 minutes. I used my arms a BUNCH on the way down to take the load off my calves. I warned Russ, but he’s young and stubborn so he didn’t listen. His calves are still sore 5 days later. Ha! That’ll learn you to not listen to your elders!

My next climb is tomorrow (9/25/09) in LA up the US Bank building. It’s 75 stories, so I don’t think I’ll be sprinting that one. I’ll miss another weekend climb with my homies, but be sure to go without me folks! Erik, Tiff and Roby have already committed to Muni this Saturday (9/26) at 3 pm so be sure to show up and do a couple floors for me too!

Thanks Greg for cranking up this site! What a blast! Our own little stair cult begins… Kind of makes me weepy.

We of course need to give props right away to all our current regulars: Erik, Roby, Chris, Kirsten, Kit, Kevin, Jeff, Emma, Andrea and of course you – Greg, our founding webmaster! Once you get back from your 1/2 marathon in Chicago, I know you’ll be running up with us again.

Like “Fight Club”, we need some rules! What do you all think? How about a minimum number of trips to qualify for being an official “Flight Club” member? It seems that once someone has come more than 10 times, they are hopelessly addicted, so since 14 is a multiple of 7, how about that for the minimum? Once someone qualifies, then they can order the club shirt. How about that?

Here’s a cool Seattle skyscraper site:

http://www.skyscraperpicture.com/seattle.htm

Check out Roby’s click tracks link to the right! They are perfect for pacing yourself. Just download the right one for you and stick it on your MP3 player.

Remember to follow xgymstairs on Twitter for climbing tweets and weekend climb times.  It looks like Greg already put the link up on this site. I just sent one out for Muni stairs this Sat at 8:30. See you there!

-PJ

P.S. Here’s one of our WaMu climb winning videos from YouTube: