Aon 2014 -- not peaked, and it showed.

Aon chicago is the first race i ever did, of any sort, so it is special for me.  I also very much like the race and usually do well at it, so i also look forward to it very much.  

Over the summer, i was doing high-intensity training 3 times a week, and cratered before US bank, and had a poor race there. I had over trained and burned myself out. 

To try to recover from that, I did a lot of low-intensity cardio and good-old fashioned rest, and managed to make a small PR by sears tower, just over a month later, and a larger PR at 300N, just a week after that.  

Buoyed by that, i decided to keep “base building”--ie, doing lots of easy cardio and cross training--until AON, maybe mixing a few sprints in there.  Last year i did 5 weeks of race simulation climbs every 3-4 days before Aon, so i went into the event pretty confident, but this year i’d have none of that.

All lined up!

At the start line, i was a few pounds lighter than last year, and a fair bit leaner.  But with my non-specific training, i had no idea how i’d do.  When it was my turn to go, I started off doing 10 seconds a floor, and at 50 i’d switch to 9 seconds a floor, with a goal time on 12:40, just 15 seconds faster than the previous year.  

For the first 15 floors my legs felt stiff and heavy.  A few people started to get close to me, but by 20 they had dropped away, and my legs warmed up and i felt good.  I got a little ahead and a little behind at times, but stuck to my splits.  The 40th floor came up at 6:30, exactly where it should have been.  I was feeling generally tired, but not bad.  Right then, a woman started to catch up to me, single stepping and not using the rails.  It was impressive to see, and i stepped aside for her on about 45.  Her cardio must be incredible to climb like that! She finished with 12:30 and i think she could do significantly better with superior technique.

50 was to be my “go” floor.  But when it was time to dig down and pick up the pace--i just didn’t have it.  I can’t precisely say what went wrong, but i just felt bad, really bad!  In the past, i’ve known what went out on me, my legs, my lungs, my heart, but this time i just felt “bad” and was convinced if i didn’t back off, i’d crash and burn. So, back off, i did.  The last 30 floors were a painful slog. I remember thinking people were sure to start passing me soon, but no one did.  The floors seemed to tick off slower and slower.  Finally, i dragged myself the last few floors to the door, and popped through.  I thought my time had been 13:30 or so, far off of what i had hoped, and much slower than the year before. Bleh.

Despite being slow, i was still exhausted. I walked to the middle of the ballroom, and rolled onto my back for a few minutes trying to catch my breath.  Then i got up and took some pictures and found what people’s times where.  Eric had apparently won with 9:44, a really impressive time.  We took a team photo, had a few snacks, and headed down.

Fastest stair team around!

When we all went back down the elevator, i saw there were boxes of sample sized snickers. Volunteers were handing bars to the runners as they emerged from the elevator.  Eric is well-known for eating snickers before races, so i thought it’d be funny to give him a box of them as his trophy.  He loved his trophy, and everyone got a good laugh.

We all did a group climb, and one of our friends who hadn’t gotten into the elite wave was there, so we chaperoned him up.  It was fun all climbing together. It amazing how easy it was to climb in about 20 minutes… Just no effort, walking, talking, laughing.  I did 2 more fitness climbs, clocking in about 16 minutes, then my cousin Kyle showed up.  I paced him up the steps for a time of 20:55, very high in his age group.  So i ended up with 5 climbs for the day, one race pace, 2 tough, 2 easy.

As for my disappointing result, If my recollection and math is correct, instead of doing the last 30 floors in 9 seconds each, as i hoped, i did them in 11 seconds each, which entirely accounts for the amount by which i was slower.  But only a few days later, at the gym, i did a workout as hard as what i’d done before i killed the race the year before, and found it not that difficult. So i think the entire problem was me not being “tuned up” for the event--i simply hadn’t done a 13 minute hard stair effort, so i was not physically, and more importantly perhaps, mentally ready for the event.

With stratosphere coming up in 5 weeks, my goal is clear: try to cash in my fitness and base for a better result at that race. I’d messed up my training both by going too hard and going to easy.  My plan now is to do a hard stair session twice a week, and focus on recovery: yoga, post-workout shakes, foam rolling, etc.

The wednesday after the race i did 10 minutes at 135 steps/minute. Then i did 10 minutes of intervals at 162 steps a minute.  Since my goal is to do strat in under 10 minutes, this should get me ready.  10 minutes at strat would be 129 steps/minute, but real stairs are always harder than the stairmaster.  So 135/min for 10 straight isn't fit enough. But there is time to improve that.

After strat, i’ll be focusing on hancock, so i’ll lower the intensity and increase the time periods of each to 13 minutes. My goal at hancock would need me to average 125 steps/min

If this is successful, after race season is over, i’ll re-adjust this workout for my sears tower goal, and do it once every 5-7 days, aiming for tiny increases at the most, but increases i can maintain over the summer.  My sears tower workout would be 17 minutes as hard as possible, then 17 minutes of intervals at max pace.

Bop to the top 2014

I’d heard about bop to the top for a few years, but never really considered going until Syd told me it was a great race, and i should stay at his place. This sounded like a great time, so i agreed.  The fact it was a relatively cheap race ( $25!! ) and had cash prizes also helped.  Soon before the race, Josh told me he was going to sign up, and i asked Syd if he would host Josh too. Syd agreed, and Josh and i arranged to drive down together. I signed up for both the single and triple climb, so i’d be ascending the stairs 4 times that day.  Pretty much everyone else i knew was doing the same.

Another thing that excited me about this race was the fact that it had 5 year age groups, so i’d be in the 40-44 age group with such small age groups, i thought i had a decent chance of placing in mine, potentially even winning.  I’d never won anything at a race, so i was pretty excited about this possibility!

8 days before the race, on a friday, i did 8 climbs of presidential towers.  My first climb i took it easy, warming up and getting a feel for the steps.  My second climb i pushed pretty hard, following one of my timing tracks and picking up the pace at the 35th floor.  I thought i had managed a 4:11 and was ecstatic, as my race best had been 4:42.  However, i soon realized my mistake, and saw that i had gone 4:39. Still a PR, not pushing as hard as i could, but not the ridiculous climb i thought i had managed.  I did 6 more climbs, doing some sections single-stepping, occasionally triple-stepping, usually pacing myself until 35, then sprinting until the 49th floor.  A pretty brutal workout!

The following sunday, i did a really tough running workout, running 5 mile repeats on the treadmill.  Tuesday was to be my last pre-bop cardio session, but i only managed to stay on the stairmaster for about a minute.  My legs felt utterly dead. Previously, i might have tried to push, but i decided if my legs were dead, i should rest.  One of my mantras this year is that it’s better to be undertrained than overtrained.  I stretched, did some upper body weights, and went home.  I did yoga wednesday and thursday, not loading my legs too much, and left friday workout-free.  

Friday afternoon, Josh showed up at my house, and we hopped in my subaru to drive to bop. After an uneventful drive, we got to Syd’s.  He greeted us, showed us to our rooms, and took us to dinner at a superb french restaurant that even had vegan options. So very winning!  We chatted for awhile, then went to sleep early.  

The next morning, i was up before six, taking in a little dried fruit, and having some coffee. We all prepared for the race and set out nice and early.  Soon we were there putting on our bibs and chips.  The race was well run, with lots of sponsors & vendors, giveaways, snacks, etc.  One of the super-elite climbers, Eric Leninger, who had retired from the sport, was there, looking fit and ready to destroy the race.  I greeted Cody as he arrived, and went to do the first climb of my three.  

The line was short, and the start was different than most races.  Usually, you are sent, then you walk across a mat that starts your chip.  At bop, you stand on the mat directly at the bottom of the steps, then you are told “go” at the 10 second boundary.  There was also a choice of staircases, and i started with the closer ‘a’ staircase.

I didn’t hit my timing track until i was halfway through the first floor, but it was still helpful to have it.  My legs felt heavy and leaden pretty quickly.  I worried it would be like tuesday, and i was overtrained, but forced myself to stick to my pace.  After about 10 floors, my legs felt better. Soon, i was nearly a floor ahead of pace and feeling pretty good.  Around then i had to pass a few people, which slowed me down a bit.  But by 30 i was back where i should have been, and ready to make a surge.  However, i hit 2 more people, who, though they moved over, held me up a bit. I still thought i might have crossed the mat a second or two before my goal time, which would have been great.  I sat on the floor and sucked air for a few minutes before heading down.

Downstairs, i saw my time had been 5:31, so i had been right that i had sneaked in a second or so under my goal.  I rested a good 30 minutes, then went up again.  This time my legs felt better for the first 20 floors, then i got pretty tired, and again had to deal with traffic.  I was about a floor and a half behind with 5 to go, but put on a surge and managed a 5:40.

Talking to people, i found Josh was already done with his 4 climbs(!) and Eric had done his three.  Josh’s times were all in the 4:30 and 4:50 range, super impressive.  Eric had crushed it, with his triple climb times all between 3:45 and 3:50.  I waited and snacked a bit, then went for the third climb of my triple.  Again, i felt good at the start, then had to deal with traffic when tired, and managed a 5:44.  All solid times in my goal range, so i felt good.  Better yet, i was the fastest person by a good margin in the 40-44 age group, so i was going to win something at a race for the first time ever.  

I took a long rest, hoping to crush my single climb.  Crushing for me would have been 5:15 or so, which didn’t seem likely, but i planned to stick to my pace and pick it up after 15 floors if possible.  I looked at the standings, and saw that someone in my age group had managed a 4:11 single climb, which was obviously not something i could contemplate trying to beat. I was just climbing for myself, to see what i could do after 3 climbs.  

However, there were a lot of slow-looking people in line in front of me, so i was worried. When i started, i wasn’t able to get my timing track going, and climbed with no pace.  Not very helpful.  

At only about 3 i hit a family, father, mother, kid.  None of them wanted to get out of the way despite my asking several times.  I had to squeeze past each of them individually, which i thought had cost me at least 10 seconds.  I could have bulled past them, but tired, and sure i wasn’t going to win anything in my age group, i didn’t have the desire to perhaps ruin the race for people.  

At that point, with no chance of placing even if i had done perfectly, i sort of quit, and just decided to have fun.  I thanked volunteers as i passed, and tried to smile as best i could.  I encountered a biker-looking dude at 25 or so who had a death grip on both rails and would not relinquish it.  Another 10 seconds or so gone until i managed to duck inside as he released the rail for a second.   I popped out of the top and for once didn’t need to sit down.  Looking at my time, it had been a 6:05. Essentially my estimated 2 10 seconds delays had added 20 seconds to my time.  Made sense.

The awards ceremony was cool, seeing my friends win so many prized.  I was really disappointed, though, because for triple climbers, the age categories were 10 years, vs 5 for the single, so i hadn’t won. James harris had, with times of 5:13, 5:16, 5:23.  I was disappointed, because those climbs seem attainable to me, had i trained just a bit better, or even come in 5-10 pounds lighter.  But they would have not been possible to me that day however tantalizingly close i might have been able to come had i had them as goals. I did get second in my age group, which got me a cool trophy ( a nice bowl ) but no cash prize.

We all grabbed breakfast/lunch, which was a lot of fun, then headed out.  Josh and i considered staying for an extra day to avoid the storm, as Syd offered, but we both wanted to be home. The drive would have been fine in the subaru, it stuck to even the sloppy roads like glue, but other drivers were the issue.  Too many people doing half the limit in the left lane, with people passing at reckless speeds on the right. The interstate was closed near lafayette, and driving through town to get back on past the accident took nearly an hour.  Past that, there were far fewer drivers, and they seemed to know better what they were doing, and i averaged about 60 much of the rest of the way home.  Even with snow tires, i would have been scared to do that drive in the BMW, but the subaru handled it just fine.

I had a big salad and went to sleep, and felt fine the next morning. That’s one of the amazing things about stair climbing; i can push myself as hard as possible and feel 100% fine the next day.  My sunday workout was 8.5 slow miles on the treadmill, which left me feeling very creaky and sore the next morning.  Stairs really are the best workout.

In any case, there is no rest for the wicked! 8 days after bop is Aon chicago, which is my favorite race, and i normally do the best at.  My time there last year was 12:55 which i feel i’ll be very hard pressed to match, much less improve upon.  My goal time for Aon is 12:40, but taking even 15 seconds off my awesome race from last year will be very tough indeed! I frankly don’t know if i’m in that sort of condition, but i’m going to make the effort.

Until then, keep climbing!!

Base building

It's been awhile since my last post, with my races over for awhile, it was nice to take a little break!

I've been doing some reading and thinking about my training and my goals for my upcoming races.  Reading about peaking, it seems clear that i can't be where i want to be for a whole season right now. There is just no way to do it. People peak for a specific event.

However, there are people who could show up to any event i do and blow my socks off, and some of them don't have any more genetic potential than i do. How do they do it?

Because they have such a good aerobic base.  What is an aerobic base?  It's something you build by steady, easy work, climbing, running, biking, etc, in zone 2, working at a place where your body can maintain that workload for many hours.  Spending a lot of time here causes your body to grow more blood vessels, to produce more mitchondria and enzymes to create energy and break down fat.

These changes in your body increase the level at which your body can work aerobically.  Without going into a lot of technical definitions, when you are doing aerobic work, your body is not going into deficit: it is not consuming energy faster than it can be freed from stores ( the liver, stored glycogen, fat ).  It is not consuming oxygen faster than your lungs can absorb it and your heart can deliver it. You are also not creating waste products ( lactic acid, carbon dioxide ) faster than your body can process and remove it.

The opposite of this is anerobic work, where you exceed one or more of these factors.  You are working so hard your body cannot free stored energy, absorb oxygen, and remove waste.  So, obviously, you can only work at this level for a short period of time.  But you can go very fast.

To illustrate, imagine a stair race that is only 20 floors, vs sears tower, vs a power hour.  Even if the 20 floors in the 20 floor race are pretty tall, i should be done in about 2:30 minutes, for about 7 seconds a floor.  I'd be hurting right from the start, and ready to collapse at the end..

My time for sears tower is right about 19 minutes, for 103 floors.  So about 11 seconds a floor.  Considerably slower than the 20 floor building, but after 20 floors of sears tower, i feel basically fine.  Even at 60, i feel better than the end of the 20 floor race, though i've done much more work.  That is because i've not exceeded, at least not by much, my aerobic capacity.

Then there is the power hour.  31 floors, as many times as i can in an hour.  I managed 9 climbs in 54 minutes, so my rate of ascent was 11.6 floors a second.  Not much slower than sears tower, though there was 5+ minutes of rest in there as i rode down the elevator, though some of that was running.

You can build your anerobic capacity, but it's very hard, and you generally cannot maintain it: you need to do brutal workouts at intensities that use your body up and expose you to maladies and illness. But you can do it very fast.  Building your aerobic capacity is the opposite: months or years of long, boring workouts, where you stimulate your body a little and let it recover before the next workout.  But your reward is that you can, on most any day, have a solid result in any race other than a sprint,, simply because you will be able to work under your aerobic threshold. Also, since you are not breaking down your body with an anerobic effort, you can do it again next week, or even a day or two later. Contrast that with my race season where i found myself unable to perform well after a few weekends or races, or at the end of the season.

So, that being said, i'm going to focus on my aerobic work, maybe trying for a mini peak for stratosphere/hancock.  But i'm looking at the long term, both in performance and health.  Lots of varied easy workouts with lots of attention on recover.  Instead of obsessing on the Aon race, i'mm be building slowly and steadily, maybe for years to come, seeing where it can take me!

Inspired by a record -- my stair climbing journey

A few weeks ago, i verified a world record for guinness!  It was a stair climbing record, predictably enough.  The specific record was for climbing the most vertical feet in 12 hours.  The event was amazing and seeing Justin churn away for 12 hours was really inspiring. The old record was 33,000 feet and Justin eclipsed 38,000 feet, crushing the old record.  Seeing what a dedicated and elite athlete could accomplish is something that will stick with me for a long time.  Seeing what Justin could do is helping me to focus more on my own fitness and diet.

What is interesting is that not that long ago, almost 2 years ago exactly, i was considering quitting stair climbing.  I was doing 3 races a year, and they were expensive, not fun, and i wasn't getting any better at them.  I'd climbed sears tower 3 times, and was stuck in the 21+ minute range.  My times at hancock and Aon had both slipped.  My weight wasn't changing.  I saw the elites on facebook, but

Now, i'm top 40 in the US, #126 in the world, have raced all over the US, am vice-president in charge of statistics and scoring for the US tower racing association, and many of my best friends are people i've met through stair racing.

How did this happen?

Mostly, because i took a chance.  The empire state run up was the granddaddy of races, the most competitive in the world, the unofficial world championship.  I applied for it, knowing it was a lottery and my odds were slim at getting in.

But i _did_ get in.  Lottery, but going was going.  Now i had to fly to new york for the race.  I was going to put real time and money into this.  I'd better do some research..  I'd better focus more in training... I'd better watch my diet!

So i started networking.  I met cody at sears tower because he was wearing a gopro, tracked him down on facebook, and he added me to a stair climbing group. I mostly watched and listened, and got some good training advice.

At empire, i saw a few of the elite climbers i knew from facebook, but didn't introduce myself before the race.  I was happy with my time at empire, and met Madeleine after the race.  I signed up for oakbrook and springfield.  I wore my empire shirt to oakbrook, and that broke the ice with a number of the elite climbers i'd seen on facebook--Karen, Roxanne, Oz, Jesse, Eric, Justin, Cindy. It was an amazing experience, especially when Jesse, Eric, and Justin invited me for a fun climb.

Down in springfield, Oz's wife, Kristie, invited me to a after-race party at their house.  What an opportunity!  It was there i met Kristin and Brady, not knowing not much more than a year later, we'd be traveling to the pacific northwest together!

Later that year, i started following the world ranking system, and decided it didn't work for the US all that well.  I wrote some programs to create a US only scoring system, pretty much on a lark, and stated posting results.  Before i knew it, people cared a lot about it, and were contacting me for their places.  I got involved with PJ and got myself appointed VP in charge of statistics and scoring for the US tower racing association.  That is what made me eligible, and the main option, to verify the record for guinness.

It's been a great journey, and has improved my life greatly, and wouldn't give it up for anything. If i've learned one thing it's that choosing to just do something well pays dividends, almost no matter what it is.

Time off, but never enough

Well, the thanksgiving holidays are over, and i feel recuperated from my burnout which is great.

However, it's l;ready december, and i have a race in mid-january already!  6 weeks, basically, until i have a stiarcase in front of me and a clock ticking.  I don't know what it's realistic for me to accomplish in that time, so i'm just going to focus on my long-term goals.  I'd much rather make steady improvements to my overall fitness as opposed to quickly peaking for a race, the mistake i made before.

So, with that in mind, i'm going to consciously not peak for the two upcoming races, but focus on overall improvement in these areas:

Weight: always a concern, my weight was nice and low for sears, but has climbed more than i would have thought possible.  In the long run, ever pound i can scrub off is a huge benefit.  I can't let the fact i seemingly put on 4 pound in 3 weeks where i was eating carefully concern me.

Strength: i definitely needed more overall strength.  I was "saving" myself for my constant interval workouts, which was dumb.  I'll do more strength-building workouts, long workouts on real stairs, sculpt yoga, and even some gym leg and rowing workouts.

Cardio base: long runs, tempo runs, workouts in the cold.  A great way to help with goal #1, reducing weight.

Milwaukee misadventure.

Coming off a great CF climb, my expectations for the milwaukee climb were not as high.  I would not have gone--i didn't entirely feel up to it--but three other racers were carpoooling from chicago, and i didn't want to miss the opportunity to hang with them.

It was an evenign climb, so i went to work, did my day, then headed to the north side of chicago.  We hung out at jesse's house for awhile, before piling into his van and heading up to chicago.

I don't know what i messed up, but i did not show up to the race feeling well.  Perhaps i had hydrated incorrectly, or messed up my diet, not slept well, or i was just tired from races/training.  Probably all these were factors.  But at the race, i felt tired, sore, and a little feverish.  We got there pretty early, so i had time to warm up/hydrate, etc. Nothing seemed to work, so when i lined up, i did my best to pump myself up, but my body didn't feel ready.

I slid back in the line until i felt i was in a decent spot.  The people behind me ha done sears tower a bit slower, but i felt less confident about this race.  Soon we were going, it was my turn after a few minutes, and i was sent up!

Not being sure about the layout, i pushed at a decent pace.  I had a timing track that aimed to get me to the top in the low sixes.  We started 4 floors below the street, and i got to ground floor in good time, and to the 5th floor in time as well, but my legs were hurting.  I didn't seem to have recovered from 300N.

I backed off a bit to what i thought i could maintain.  That meant every 5 or so floors i fell a floor behind where i wanted to be.  I began to worry that someone from behind was going to catch me, even with the big timing gaps we had been given.  That pushed me a little, which stopped me from sliding any more.  Somehow, at one point, i thought i only had 10 floors left, and felt good, so i picked up the pace, then realized, after i felt kinda burned out, i had 20 floors left when i'd made my mistake, so i had to back off even more.

But soon i was on 37, and i sprinted up the last 5.  I sat down and felt crappy, physically, about my race, about how i'd prepared that day.  Sure, it was my first time in that building, and i had a bunch of fairly valid excuses, but i still could have done a lot better.

Downstairs, i saw my time was 7:32, nothing at all special.  My teammates had gone 1-2-3 and i felt kinda bad i hadn't been able to complete the carpool sweep. There wasn't much food at the buffet for me, so i had 2 beers, and felt even crappier later.  

In the end, i think my big lesson from this race is my overall base fitness needs to be higher, and when i have races close like this, i need to work more on recovery between.  I probably did part of the damage with 2 long runs the week before 300N even though i did fine in that race.  I also didn't eat right after those as well.

Details matter, and recovery is a big detail!

I am glad i have no more races until mid-january!  In the meantime, i'm going to train hard and eat well in hopes of a good race season!

300 N LaSalle CF climb for life 2013

This was a small race, but a good one last year, and i was looking forward to doing it again.  The race fee was cheap ( $25, as i signed up early ) and for elites, the fee was waived.  $25 for a well run race with elites flying in from out of town?  Too good to pass up! 

The climb was from ground to the 58th floor, and we'd switch staircases once, with a quick run down a hallway to get to the second staircase. The stairs were narrow, turning right until the hallway run at 22, then left until 58.  I recalled the floors/stairs as being uneven.

The previous year, my time had been 9:45, and i felt i had overachieved that race.  Roxanne had passed me around 40, and i had hung onto her for dear life, leaving me destroyed on the floor.  

Hoping to build on my modest success at sears, i decided to set myself a pace of 10 seconds a floor, allowing 10 extra seconds for the hallway run at 22.  That would bring me in at 9:40, and, really, i hoped to come in a bit faster than that by picking up the pace over the last few floors.  

Somewhat sore from sears tower, i did yoga monday.  Tuesday i woke up super early, and hustled to a spin class at the gym.  I still did yoga that evening, and again wednesday. Thursday night, i planned to run 13.1 miles for the calorie burn, but was underdressed for the cold and called it off after only 6.3 miles.  Friday night was again yoga, though i took it easy and focused on stretching my legs out. 

Thursday, Oz, one of the top racers in the US, called me, and said he had just decided to participate in the race, and wondered if he could stay with me.  I eagerly agreed as he's a super great guy, and i knew it'd be fun to hang out.  

Saturday was just yard work, and soon oz, then kelley showed up.  We went to starbucks to get our pre-race coffees, then out for thai food. Back at my place, we snacked a bit, and watched movie 43, a gross-out comedy in the vein of kentucky fried movie.  It was a good choice to keep our mind off the upcoming race and relax us.  We went to bed early, to get plenty of rest for race day.

That morning, both oz and i got up before our alarms and started to prepare.  I caffeinated and made a smoothie, oz had his coffee and sandwiches.  It was nice to be relaxed before a race--i felt ready at 6:30, and we wouldn't be lining up until nearly nine.  I checked and re-checked my equipment, no mistakes this time!

We left at 7:25 and go to the race in 25 minutes or so.  We parked and were in the building before eight.  With an hour before the race, we had time for several bathroom trips, checking gear, stretching, warming up, getting and calming nerves, etc.  Getting to the race so early felt great and i will try to do it more often.

Loosening up pre-race

But nine approached, and the elites were called to line up.  We went to the line and self-sorted in expected finishing order.  Jesse, oz, PJ, Josh, scott, me, bob klinko, bob toews.  We got sent  through with nice long gaps between us, and in a moment, i was waved forward, jogged to the door, and hit play on my audio track.  

Right away i had problems holding onto my 10 second a floor pace.  The first few floors seemed to be taller than expected. But instead of letting myself fall behind, hoping to make it up later, i'd sprint to catch up. Hitting the floors right at the mark felt good, and my legs seemed to be holding up fine.  After surging forward to catch up, I'd climb a few floors at a more conservative pace before needing to pick up the pace again.  

Soon i hit 22, and jogged dowm the hallway.  I had allotted 10 seconds for the hall, but it probably took more in the range of 5 seconds, as i was halfway up the next staircase before i hit my next time mark.  Having the cushion was a nice psychological advantage though.  I decided i could slowly give that time back if any tall floors caused me to lose a second or two, though i'd only give those seconds back grudgingly. 

Soon, i saw someone a floor or so behind me, bob klinko.  He saw me and seemed to speed up.  I fought to keep from panicking and speeding up, to stick to my pace and run my own race.  Soon he was a few steps behind me, and i told him if he wanted to pass to just say so. he said i was fine, so i kept doing what i was doing.  

Soon i must have picked up the pace, or the floors got a bit shorter, because by the low 40's i had picked up a second or two. I decided to hang onto this second or two, because any time under my goal would be a victory, so all i had to do was maintain the extra 2-3 seconds i had.  

I kept this up until 51-52 when i decided i had the energy for a finishing sprint.  I picked up the pace, pulling hard on the handrails.  Bob, who had shadowed me for about 17 floors, dropped away.  I felt great, scooting to 55-56 very quickly, much faster than the rest of the race.  Suddenly, my legs started to feel a bit wobbly, and i backed off, not wanting to fall or collapse so short of the end.  I used my arms even more, dragging myself up the last 2-3 agonizing floors before stumbling across the timing mat, and lying on the ground a few feet past that. A few seconds after i crossed the mat, i heard my audio track announce 9:30, so i knew i'd come in well under my goal time; i estimated 9:25 or so.  Victory! 

Bob klinko popped through the door soon after me, and i knew he'd had a faster time than me.  Bob Towes passed though a minute or two later, and by then i felt good enough to sit up. Bob handed me my headband, which had apparently popped off near the top, my second race headband malfunction in the past week!  I felt bad that he'd taken time out of his own race to pick up my headband.  We took some team photos and headed down to look at our times. 

Taking a breather at the top

The first page of results!

Go team!

I had a quick coffee and wondered where mark block was.  I was to escort him up, but i thought i'd have time to recharge.  Mark has had two separate injuries that could have crippled him, yet participates in a great number of stair climbs all around the country.  But he has a hard time climbing, and i worried terribly he was going it alone, so i took off after him, back up the stairs.  I was pretty exhausted from my first climb, so i wasn't going a whole lot faster than many of the other climbers.  Almost halfway up, i found him and scott stanley, and i was glad to finally slow down.  I helped him when he got shaky, and kept people away from him but it was truly inspiring to see how hard he was working to climb the steps, how he was pushing past physical trauma to do something most healthy people wouldn't even consider.  

After that climb, i took a break, but mark went back up again with a different group.  Soon i heard that they were stuck in the stairs and i went to try to let them out. After much dashing about and grabbing a security person, i looked over the railing at 35 and saw hands on the rails down below. I jumped into the elevator with the guard and we shot to 25, opened the door and came face to face with the lost climbers.  Lucky guess!

Afterwards, Oz, Mark, Bob, Kelley and I went to karyn's cooked, one of my favorite vegan restaurants.  Everyone loved their food, and we had great conversation.  All in all a great day of racing.  

Grades:

Preparation: a+. Was totally ready for the race

Race strategy : a- Could have gone a little faster earlier. Maybe. But i could have crashed too.

Effort : A- Could have started my final surge a little sooner too.

Overall grade: A.  Pretty well done race on my part, big confidence builder!

Still somewhat sore wednesday morning, so i guess i pushed it pretty hard!