Was Completing My First Stair Race In Over A Year A Terrible Mistake? (Cincinnati Fight For Air Climb Race Recap)

I was woefully under-prepared, and nursing an injured foot. Why did I sign up to race up and down thousands of stairs?

This morning I collapsed on the grass (actually, it was turf), after a job well done, and felt a specific sense of pride that I haven’t felt since February 2020. It’s a mix of accomplishment, exhaustion, pain, and invincibility – and I only experience it when I complete a stair race.

So, the answer to the question at the beginning of this blog post is… Because I love stair races. Period.

Two Virtual Races Under My Belt… In Two Consecutive Weekends

I spent some quality time with my favorite running buddy yesterday, and he thanked me with a big ol’ kiss!

JJ and I completed the Pride Stride 5K yesterday, which was a virtual race, which meant we could run it anywhere we wanted, and then submit our time to their website. Virtual races have become

My First Race in Four Months!

One of the things I miss most right now is stair racing. Thanks to the pandemic, stair races are pretty much done for the time being, and I don’t know when they’re coming back… or when I’ll feel comfortable racing again anyway. I did have a race experience recently, though – with a bib and everything!

Good ol’ lucky number 41088! The race was

My One-Mile Trek Into the Sky (Trek Up The Tower Race Recap)

It takes a special kind of nutjob to compete in a vertical mile stair race, because the goal is completely nutty: to climb stairs until you reach one mile of vertical gain. It’s a lot of stairs. Think about how the second floor of your house may be 10 feet off the ground, and compare that to the finish line for this race being one mile off the ground. It’s exhausting just to think about, and as someone who accomplished a vertical mile yesterday, I can tell you it’s way more exhausting in real life. So, yea, I guess that makes me a nutjob… but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

There aren’t any staircases that stretch a mile into the sky, so a vertical mile stair race has to happen in a skyscraper, with participants climbing those stairs over and over again.

Yippie-Ki-Yay, My First Power Hour of 2020! (Oakbrook Terrace Fight For Air Climb Race Recap)

It’s the weekend… time for a stair race! This one was a Power Hour, in a 31-story skyscraper. So the question isn’t ‘How fast did I make it to the top?’ It’s ‘How many times did I climb it in an hour?’

The race was the Fight For Air Climb, put on by and benefiting the Greater Chicago chapter of the American Lung Association. It happened

I Felt Like a Total Moron At My First 2020 Race… But At Least I Have a Good Story to Tell! (Bop to the Top Race Recap)

My goal for 2020 is to compete in five stair races I’ve never done before, in cities where I’ve never raced before. I’m already 20% done with my goal, because on January 18th, I competed in the 37th annual Bop to the Top in Indianapolis. It’s one of the oldest stair races in the country, in the second-tallest building in Indiana, OneAmerica Tower.

OneAmerica Tower is 38 stories, but the race is 36, with a total of 780 steps. When you register, you can sign up for a Single Climb, or the Triple Step, which is three climbs. I signed up for both. If I’m driving five hours each way to compete, I want to compete as much as I can! Add up the two events, and that’s four climbs up the stairwell. 144 floors. 3,120 steps. But, due to a ridiculously stupid and completely avoidable mistake on my part, I ended up climbing even more than that!

Two More Days… Just Two More Days…

I’m less than 48 hours away from completing the biggest fitness undertaking of my life. On Saturday morning, I’ll be competing in my 40th race of the year. It’ll be the final race of my #40years40races challenge and while I’m excited to compete, I’m even more excited for it to be over.

I never shared my Halloween costume from a few weeks back! Do you know what it is? Answer at the end of this post!

I’ve mentioned before that this

My First Third Place Medal at a Stair Race! (Steeltown Stair Climb Race Recap)

Four minutes and fifty-two seconds. It only took four minutes and fifty seconds to accomplish something I’ve never accomplished before: My first age group podium finish at a stair race!

I’ll get into all the juicy details in a bit. First, let me back up a few hundred steps. On Saturday, I competed in the Steeltown Stair Climb, a stair race in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada that benefited The Lung Association. It was my second race in Canada – after the CN Tower race in April – and my third international race!

I Just Want To Be Able To Move After This! (SkyRise Chicago 2019 Race Recap)

Hello, Willis Tower!

You may know this towering skyscraper as Sears Tower. I know it as the home to the tallest stairwell in the Western Hemisphere and the tallest stair race, too!

SkyRise Chicago, which benefits the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, has a start line two floors below ground, and a finish line on the 103rd floor. There’s 105 floors, and 2,159 steps, in between.

I Drove Across Three States to Compete in a Race Inside A Corn Maze! (Includes Awesome Aerial Footage From the Race)

Check it out – I’m in the world’s largest corn maze!

Richardson Adventure Farm, in Spring Grove, Illinois, has an annual corn maze that covers 28 acres and includes almost 10 miles of paths. It’s enormous! Every year they host a 5K race, through the maze, and I knew I wanted to do it as soon as