I’m Nearly 1/3rd Done With My Year-Long #40years40races Challenge!

It’s only the fourth month of the year, but I’ve already raced more in 2019 than I did in 2011, 2012, and 2013 combined. That’s because I’m in the middle of my #40years40races challenge, which is my quest to compete in 40 races in 2019, in honor of my recent 40th birthday.

I’m doing stair races and running races, and I’ve done so many races in the past few months that I’m starting to lose count. I need to

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I Competed in the Longest, Hardest, and Most Exhausting Event of My Life: A SIX-HOUR Stair Race! (OutClimb Cancer Challenge Race Recap)

When my alarm went off at 4:45am Saturday morning, the first thing I did was take a few deep breaths. This was going to be a day like none other I’ve experienced. I was going to push myself harder than ever before, in a challenge that would redefine what I’m capable of, what I could endure, and what I can rise above.

And it was all going to happen in this building, glowing in the pre-dawn darkness, just across the plaza from my Salt Lake City hotel room.

While short compared to towers in other cities, the

Can I Push It A Little More? (2019 Scale the Strat Race Recap)

Hello again, Stratosphere!

I’m back from my Las Vegas trip, where I competed, for the fourth time, in the American Lung Association’s Scale the Strat – a race up 1,391 steps in the tallest freestanding observation tower in the USA.

I didn’t like this race after I did it for the first time in 2014, mostly because

Conquer the Overlook 2018 (Race Recap)

What?! A Race?! Less than two weeks after LASIK surgery?

Yup, it’s true. But I didn’t defy any doctors’ orders. I was told I

Break? What Break? I Just Did the Lemon Climb Denver! (Race Recap)

On Saturday, my sister Sarah and I competed in The Lemon Climb Denver, a 43-story stair race to the top of a tall Colorado skyscraper.

You: Really? A stair race? I thought you were taking a break!

Me: I am taking a break. But the break, while necessary, was a spontaneous decision, and I had registered for this race months ago, accepted money from

One Morning. Two Separate Stair Races. My First Triumphant Double Header! (2017 SkyRise Chicago and Chicago CF Climb Race Recaps)

There are many reasons why I love competing in stair races, but the very first thing that hooked me was the overwhelming feeling that comes after I cross a finish line – a one-of-a-kind swirl of pride, accomplishment, invincibility, pain and exhaustion. Prior to my involvement in this sport, I had never felt it before, and now I can’t get enough of it. This picture, taken moments after crossing a finish line on Saturday, is the closest I’ve come to capturing that feeling:

Now, when I look at it, I can see every component of that feeling pretty clearly:

My Fifth Race Up the Tallest Stairwell in the West! (Stair Climb for Los Angeles Race Recap)

Last weekend was the Stair Climb for Los Angeles, the Downtown-Ketchum YMCA’s annual race up the stairwell in the 75-story US Bank Tower, from the sidewalk to the tallest roof in Los Angeles!

This was my fifth consecutive year competing, and while I was excited to attempt a new personal best, I didn’t have