Check them out here:

The current #1 male in the world, Justin Stewart: http://www.active.com/fitness/Articles/Meet-the-Elite-Male-Stair-Climber-Justin-Stewart.htm

The current #1 female in the world, Kristen Frey (sorry about the blurry picture – cameras don’t have shutter speeds fast enough to catch her when she’s racing): http://www.active.com/women/articles/meet-the-elite-women-stair-climbers.htm

World’s fastest female sprint tower racer, Kourtney Dexter: http://www.active.com/women/Articles/Meet-the-Elite-Women-Stair-Climbers-Pt-2.htm

World’s most wins (and still currently racing), Jesse Berg (picture below):  http://www.active.com/fitness/Articles/Meet-the-Elite-Male-Stair-Climber-Jesse-Berg.htm

Lastly, but certainly not least, if there were a hall of fame, Terry Purcell would be the first inductee. He isn’t racing anymore, but after 18 years straight and more wins than anyone ever, he’s not only “da man,” but he’s also “da pioneer,” inspiring and even (still) mentoring many of us in the stair climbing family.

Why didn’t I mention Thomas Dold? After all, he does indeed win the overall #1 slot in the world every year. Well, I view this as an amateur sport and since he is a professional athlete without a real job, he gets to train as much as he wants. The rest of us have jobs, so our time is much more limited. Plus, we have to pay for our own travel expenses, entry fees, fundraising minimums, etc. That adds up to about $1,200 per race (with no prize money for winning) and when you race enough to get as high a rank as the folks on this page, that comes to at least $10,000 per year paid out of pocket. To shell out that kind of money with only the most intense pain of any sport as a return, makes these people in my opinion, the essence of athletics.

May 2012

August 2010

Why?

Because when you add the vertical component to human locomotion, the endurance and strength systems freak out. This is good, because when these systems freak out, they change fast. REAL fast.

Why?

Because your body is used to moving across flat surfaces. That’s what we do most of the time. In fact, if our surroundings aren’t flat, we rent a bulldozer and make them flat. We love flat.

FAT loves flat too though, and that’s one of the reasons why our country is so huge. Moving across flat is easy. It requires very little energy and efficiency is maximized rapidly among our internal and skeletal systems to adapt and make it even easier. Heck, even going DOWN something is harder than flat. To go down, you have to put on the breaks so you don’t build speed and careen out of control. Brakes take work. When you are on flat, you just coast to a stop and sit down. And then because you’re on your butt so much, it feels like it deserves more attention, so the body says OK and makes it the BIG cheese.

When you go UP something however, it’s a different story.

Why?

Because going up, or VT, is exponentially more work – the kind of work that strengthens your heart and lungs (endurance) faster than any HT you could think of.

VT also improves muscular strength and tone, because your muscles are working harder and are using a greater range of motion. HT only requires endurance.

Additionally, VT is safer, lower impact, is more fun and it allows you escape from bad guys (seriously, what hoodlum would want to chase you up a steep hill or a staircase?).

VT also makes you leaner. There are no world-class tower runners with an ounce of fat on them.

Why?

Because when you push hard running up something steep, it activates your fight or flight mechanism and that releases lipase, a hormone that pulls fat out of your cells so you can be lighter to run up stuff faster in the future. HT on the other hand, is easy to adapt to and that makes lipase get lazy over time. This is why you see so many fast endurance runners with saddlebags on their hips, or a remaining spare tire around their waist they just can’t seem to get rid of. You won’t see that on any fast tower runner.

Oh, and it makes you better looking too. Justin Stewart (pictured top), the current #1 tower runner in the world, gets all the chicks. Actually, he only needs one chick - his girlfriend – and she’s super hot – ‘nuf said.

Do you think you have what it takes to be a competitive tower runner? Can you bite clean through your own tongue and then swish around a mouthful of salt water for 10 minutes or more? If you can, then you are probably crazy enough to do well in this sport. Yep, it hurts at least that much to push yourself as hard as the top racers do.

If, on the other hand, that doesn’t sound like you, then congratulations on being sane, but stair climbing is still perfect for you because it is the best form of exercise on the planet. Why? Because it is the safest, fastest way to get in shape (cardio, strength, fat loss, etc.) and requires about 1/8 the time when compared to traditional exercise options like running, biking, weights, swimming, etc.

Plus, there is no better way to get your butt tighter and higher in your pants. Now that right there should be enough of a reason for anybody, right?

Even if you do more traditional forms of exercise, or are a competitive or recreational endurance athlete, stair training will take you to the next level in your sport as well. Seriously, it is the one sport that is for EVERYBODY.

Kathy Gillespie Smith, a brilliant writer, just published a terrific article on active.com about getting into stair climbing. Check it out here:

http://www.active.com/fitness/articles/intro-to-stair-climbing.htm

In this article, you will learn:

• How to prevent injuries and prevent soreness.
• What exercise equipment is best for stair training.
• How to train in a building staircase.
• How to train in your gym
• And much more!

Check out the article here: http://www.active.com/fitness/articles/your-7-day-stair-climbing-workout-plan.htm

For more info on stair training, just email pj@xgym.com.

It turns out that we had a cheater at this climb.

How do I know Miguel cheated? Well, I have a partial list of reasons below, so check it out and see what you think:
1.) He ran a 7:45, which included passing “Lots of BIG or people” as he claimed. This is DRASTICALLY faster than the fastest climbers in the USA or Mexico have ever done it – in a clear stairwell no less. Thomas Dold (the #1 ranked stairclimber in the world) couldn’t even pull a time like that. No one could.
2.) He reported that the only training he does is playing basketball with his friends once a week and riding his bike once a week. Oh, and he told Brady that he rides 20-40 miles on that weekend ride. Then he told me later that he rides 75 miles.
3.) He claimed in the morning that he practiced in the building for a couple weeks prior to the race. His story a couple hours later was that he ran it once a week. By the time I talked to him, he said he ran the building twice a day, every day. I asked him how he got out of the stairwell (assuming he had a key card since he works there) and he said he just calls on the security phone to get out, “Like my friend here” as he pointed to a companion standing close to him who worked for building security. She was in his posse and was hanging out with him the whole day.
4.) I asked him what his time was last year and he said about 8:30 but he had to stop before crossing the finishing mat at the top because he had to throw up so his time never registered. There was only about 3 feet between the top step and the mat and no one remembers any puke there. After he puked, he must have stumbled around the outside edge of the mat to avoid getting read by the mat from the chip on his shoe…
5.) He’s overweight and out of shape. Soft. Smooth. No muscle definition. No vascularity. To beat the best in the world by that much, you would have to look like a Marvel Comic action hero and then be amped up on amphetamines.
6.) He said he went at 9:30 am with the first wave. When we told him we were in that wave and didn’t see him, he said, “Oh yeah, it was more like 10 am.”
7.) When Jeff and I talked with him about 3 hours after the race, I told him that since we are such students of the sport, we would love to study his technique and would he please run it again with Jeff. He said that he couldn’t because he pulled his hamstring (as he pointed to his groin) at floor 50. I asked him how bad and if it was more of a strain or a distinct popping sound that he felt at once. He said it was really bad and that it was a popping sound. When he walked away from us, he had a huge limp. When we waked up to us for that conversation and for the 3 hours prior to that, he was walking just fine. Besides, we all know that you don’t pull a hamstring climbing stairs and if you did pull one that bad, you wouldn’t be able to finish another 12 floors, let alone shatter any records.
8.) When the awards ceremony came around, he didn’t even want to get up on stage. He looked very ashamed. Head down, shuffling his feet, no celebration, no triumphant jubilation. Just shame.
9.) Every time I talked to him, he never could look me in the eye. He was extremely uncomfortable with my questions and tried to squirm away the whole time.
10.) Brady told him that a documentary film crew was there and would be thrilled to talk to the winner. He immediately declined and said he was leaving. Yet he was back for the awards ceremony.
11.) He said his watch showed an 8:04 when he hit the timing mat at the finish, yet his time was 7:45. We all know our own stop watches are usually off by a few seconds from what the timing company gets, but never by that much. His stopwatch however, could be more inaccurate than that, because as you can see in the picture below of him crossing the timing mats, his wrist watch seems to be invisible. Or maybe he had it in his pocket and it took him 19 seconds to take it out and hit the stop button. Yeah, right.
12.) There was money on this race. He said they had a huge pool going in his office on what his time would be.
13.) The Otis elevator company was bragging all day about “Their guy.” The elevator company? Now it’s just getting funny.
14.) He claims he did this race 4 times before, but he doesn’t show up in the 2010 or 2011 results data.
15.) He told Cody right after the race that he didn’t think anyone would believe his time. Kind of a weird thing to say…
16.) His wife said he doesn’t even start doing any training until two weeks before the race.
17.) Jeff called him on Monday (two days after the race) and mentioned that he thought there were camera crews at certain floors in the building. He was VERY interested to know what floors those cameras were on. He was already working up an excuse for that scenario even before he got off the phone with Jeff. He actually said, “Well I was going fast, so they might not have seen me.” Now you have to admit – that’s freakin’ hilarious.
18.) Also, when Jeff talked to him on Monday, Miguel’s hamstring injury had become a groin injury.
19.) Jeff offered him money and sponsorships to travel to exotic places to do other stair climbs. Miguel wouldn’t even consider it. He didn’t even want to discuss it.
20.) Miguel told Jeff, “If I would have gotten 2nd, this wouldn’t be such a big deal.” Yet another reason his watch said 8:03. He was planning on that time, because he already knew how fast Jesse had run by the time he started (whenever that really was), but messed up and finished too fast.
21.) Also on Monday, Miguel told Kathy Gillespie Smith, a reporter and genius writer, that he got an 8:10 last year. In the video interview with me, he claims an 8:30. He also told Kathy that he trains on the StairMaster at the gym, so it seems he is realizing now that his training story needs some bolstering. He also told Kathy that he doesn’t train on the stairs in the building much (although in the video he claims twice a day), but cycles occasionally. Looks like he forgot to keep that training story bolstered. Then she asked him about his technique  - two step or one step and if he uses the handrail and he said he just goes up any easy he can get there and was very unsure of the question she was asking.
22.) Tommy, one of the timing officials reported, “The finish photos will tell the story. I sat in a chair on the rooftop recording finishers bib #’s and I saw everybody. I did see this man, and spoke to him. When he emerged from the stairwell he ducked the timing mats by turning right (around the barriers). I told him to cross the mats and he replied, “I’m just coming through, I work in the building.” He may have come up before that as well but I DON’T know. The photographer did manage to shoot probably EVERYBODY who crossed the mats. Wait and see if he, had in fact, even carried his own chip across the line.” This hints at something other getting into the system with a legitimate chip swipe, or having someone else cross the mat with his chip, which would get back to the relay theory, but any way you look at it, this guy seems to have a strange habit of avoiding finish line timing mats. Things that make you go “hmmmmm….”
23.) He ran this time in basketball shoes, shorts down past his knees and a t shirt. Wow, just think if he had Jesse’s super light “5 Fingers” racing shoes, our lightweight WCL racing jersey, low-friction racing shorts, no people to pass, some climbing technique, a little conditioning under his belt, 20 pounds less fat and some more race experience? He would be pulling a sub 7 minute time for sure!

Miguel does show up in 2009 results however, with a 9:38, which comes close to my best time. Heck, I need to start playing recreational basketball instead of working out as intensely as I do! Oh, and I also need to ride my bike on the weekends for 20 miles. Or 40. Or 75.

Personally, I think 2009 was the first year he cheated and his plan had some kind of glitch in 2010 or 2011. I think he got it (almost) right this year and had his security friend hold an elevator for him on a lower floor and then let him back off on one of the empty floors in the 60′s. Another way to do this is to set up a relay team, but even with 4 or 5 people in decent shape, it would still be tough to beat Jesse – especially by that much. I think Miguel and his posse botched it however, and didn’t mean to get that fast of a time. I think he really meant to get an 8:03 so he would place 2nd, but he messed up and crossed the mat (if he even did at all) much too soon.

Even though he didn’t get an official time last year due to his “puking incident,” his company still published an article about him, so it seems they just went with what he told them and failed to do any fact checking. It would seem that he also got addicted to the attention. http://www.meansknaus.com/news/2011-05-04-climb-for-air.shtml

The timing company put split mats on floors 4 and 7. Why they took the trouble to wire up mats just on those two floors I have no idea, but when I talked to them, they said as long as his splits show up, they have to leave him in the results. This allows him to only have to sprint up to 7 or 8 before exiting to meet his friend with the elevator.

We all know what a world champion stair climber looks like. Heck, I even doubted Justin Stewart’s time at the Hilton last year – until I met him. He obviously had the physique to pull it off and then some quick research on the web turned up some pretty phenomenal achievements in other sports that made sense. Miguel however, looks like someone who might be able to squeak out a 14 min time at best in the building on a really good day, and has no athletic accomplishments to be found anywhere.

So why is this such a big deal? Because we are tower runners and this is our thing. We feel violated when someone comes in and disrespects our sport like this. Also, it messes up our points and in the case of runners like Jesse Berg, it could even keep him from being invited to certain races or having his trip to Columbia paid for. It’s definitely a big deal.

Jeff Dinkin has his number and will hound him to go do some stairs – anywhere. My guess however, is that his hamstring will be a convenient excuse to avoid that encounter. It would save his job though, because he mentioned to Jeff that is is worried about being fired now, so all he has to do is prove it. In fact, I’ll offer him $2,000 to beat Jeff. Jeff got a 9:31 this year, so that should be easy for him to beat. Heck, I raced with the flu this year and was only a minute slower than my best time. Miguel can name the time and day too. Jeff can film it. I’m sure the AON will allow it. They need to clear their name too. I’ll let you know how Miguel wiggles out of this golden opportunity…

Since Miguel is apparently the fastest tower runner in the world now and smoked this climb by such a huge margin, next year he will have bib #1 and the very first start time. Next year, if he actually shows up, I will follow him up with my GoPro so I can get footage. I know I can stay with him, even if he tries to sprint to his escape hatch, whatever floor that is, because sprinting in my specialty. Since he will have an annoying camera on his butt, he can’t stick with any plan to cheat, so he will have to do the whole climb legit. My money says he won’t be under 11 minutes. And that’s being generous. Very generous.

I hope this will be a lesson to others that if you cheat in a tower with us, we will know and we will not let it go. We are a strange obsessive group of people. We are also certified insane. We are the wrong tribe to mess with.

4/3/2012 UPDATE:
Building management found the evidence necessary to disqualify Miguel. Here was their email and apology (even though it was no fault of their own):
PJ – Thank you for being patient while we investigated the incident. All of us wanted justice in this situation, and I’m glad that Jesse and the others that worked hard got what was due them, even if it was a few days late. I’ve already been in touch with Jesse, and he has been nothing but a class act and very gracious. Unfortunately for us, the actions of one individual has embarrassed us all, and even if we had no part in it, it still does reflect on our building team. Hopefully it will be conveyed to all that we won’t tolerate what occurred again, and we look forward to hosting the stairclimbing community for many more years to come. The American Lung Association does some great work and we definitely do not want to see them hurt because of this.

Now that was classy. Hats off to MKP (Means Knaus Partners)!

The timing company has reposted the final results.

Let this be a lesson to anyone who decides to cheat in one of our races. We will know and we will expose you. It will go very badly for you indeed.

A lesson we learned on our side, was that any questions or potential disputes should be taken to the highest ranking official on site, who in this case, was Jill Arnstein, the regional director for the ALA. This would have expedited the process even more, so we know that now in case this ever happens again. Jill was “on it like a bonnet” and really came through in a big way. Another point she wanted to clarify, is that this is really a fundraiser and not an official race. This is a great point and one that we should remember. For USA tower runners, these fundraiser runs are all we have, so to us they are definitely races, but her point is one that we should all remember and be sensitive to. In Europe, they have competitive races that aren’t fundraisers and we are discussing the possibility of these events right now, so that is another great take-away that resulted from  this whole fiasco.

Hats off to Mark Trahanovski, our “Step God-Father” and founder of our mighty WCL team, for all the work he did to get this resolved too. As our tribal leader, he is very protective of us and the bulldog in him really came out to find a quick resolution. He also reminded us that now that it’s over, forgiveness is not just the right thing to do, it’s the healthy thing to do – in spite of the fact that Miguel is still trying to stick to his story, just like Rosie Ruiz is still trying to stick to hers.

My offer still stands to Miguel: Just run up the AON with Jeff Dinkin and simply stay within his Go Pro camera shot the whole way up at the pace he chooses. That should be easy for you since Jeff’s time of 9:31 (7th place overall) is almost 2 minutes slower than your claimed time. Do this simple request and I will pay you $2,000. Plus, you will get massive apologies from everyone. And fame and fortune, including sponsorships and prize money for other races. It’s a no-brainer – an offer you shouldn’t be able to refuse, right?

P.S. I had a video posted here of us interviewing Miguel after the race, which clearly showed his dishonesty, but since justice prevailed, I removed it. I actually feel sorry for the guy now. It’s now time to move on and put it all behind us. We learned some great lessons, and got some good ideas about how to prevent this in the future, so there was some benefit to all this drama. It also pulled us closer as a tribe, so everything worked out for good.

HOWEVER, I just had to post the picture below because it gave me such a great laugh. My good friend Javier (from Mexico – like Miguel), who consistently places in the top 3 in the world each year (when he doesn’t have a pulled hamstring like last year) sent me this picture comparing himself finishing with a time of 8:03 in this building, side by side to the picture of our little elevator boy, who tried to claim a time of 7:45. I bet you can guess who the real tower runner is…

Shawn and Kourtney did it again! They both defended their titles by winning overall fastest man and woman. Kourtney completely shattered her own course record by such a hugh margin, it looked like a timing error. I know it was accurate though, because she started behind me by at least 15 seconds, yet she still passed me and then put an additional gap between us by the finish.  Sheesh!

Kourtney got a 9:16 last year, which was phenomenal, but this year pulled in an 8:43! That was 8th place overall, including dudes and (obviously) 1st place for women. I noticed she also beat the fastest Crossfit dude (with a 9:42) by a gap so wide you could drive a cruise ship through it. In fact, seven X Gymers came in ahead of that guy, including me (PJ), despite the fact that I had a bad race, running bout 40 seconds slower than my personal best.

Our X Gym women were total rock stars (or should I say “rock stairs?”). Roxanne came in 2nd place overall. Sheila came in 3rd place overall and won her age group (50-59). Jen came in 4th place overall and won her age group (40-49). Patricia got 9th overall, so that made it a top 4 sweep, 5 in the top 10 and a sweep of the age groups 30-59. Dang!

The Crossman twins (or should I say freaks) rounded out our fastest three climbers (with Shawn) to give us the overall team win and a combined team time of 22:39. This makes it a “three-peat” for us. By the way, if we took our 2nd fastest trio (Kourtney, PJ and Mike W.), we still would have won fastest team. Oh, and our third fastest trio (Jeff, Michael and Calvin) would have won it for us too. With more than 3000 racers and over 240 teams, this race is one of the toughest competitions on the planet.

Illahee Middle school had an awesome race this year and took the 2nd place spot with a team time of 28:24. They are nationally known for their strong track and cross country runners.  We had a strong showing as well in the “kid” department though. Calvin Hancock, my 14 year old nephew, pulled in a top 40 placement out of 3000+ racers. I figured he had a good chance at winning the 15 and under group, but he got nipped 10 seconds by one of the track stars from Illahee. Calvin is on a rampage now because of that. He recently asked his dad to take him stair climbing every day. He’s a maniac and he’s only 10 seconds behind me now in one of our local practice buildings. He’s making sure he will OWN the competition next year (and maybe me too).

Getting back to teams, I just have to mention that Crossfit doesn’t bother talking smack to us anymore. They have learned by now that they will never have a chance of coming close to our fitness. They even had their biggest turnout for this race of any year so far. Out of the 241 teams, 11 of them were Crossfit gyms. Here is how they stacked up to the X Gym team:

• 1^st place: X Gym (22:39)
• 9^th place: Kirkland Crossfit (31:08)
• 20^th place: Mt Baker Crossfit (33:03)
• 44^th place: Federal Way Crossfit (35:00)
• 53^rd place: Crossfit Advantage (36:18)
• 58^th place: Graham Crossfit (36:38)
• 80^th place: NW Crossfit (37:37)
• 84^th place: Imperial Crossfit (38:13)
• 90^th place: Ranier Crossfit (38:30)
• 102^nd place: King Crossfit (39:17)
• 197^th place: Crossfit Finish First (48:17) Hmmm, judging ny their name selection, it seems this team didn’t get the memo about X Gym and they thought they actually had a chance at winning. FAIL! They were even beat by Seattle Zumbaholics who placed 188^th place with 47:14. Oh, snap!
• 218^th place: River Town Crossfit (53:43)

Sorry, I just had to. Crossfit keeps claiming their workout is so much more intense than ours, but claims are just empty words without the proof to back it up. Since tower running is the most intense sport on the planet, I figure this is all the proof needed to show who has the most intense (and best) workout program.

Now geting off my high horse, I’d like to say that this race is nearest and dearest to my heart because it was the first race I ever did. Plus, the organizers are awesome. I still don’t know how they make it the most fun of any race I know of, as well as the best run and with the best energy, in spite of the fact that they have over 6,000 participants! Yep, that’s not a typo. With 3000+ racers and 3000+ non-timed climbers, this is the largest turnout of any stair climb on the planet and they nail it every time.

See you next year! Anyone have a more clever term than “Four-Peat?” Let me know, because we’ll need it.

Here are the official results:

https://secure3.convio.net/llswa/site/SPageServer?pagename=BC_Results