Racing Up The Tallest* Outdoor Stairway in Michigan! (Pine Mountain 500 Race Recap)

*probably

Last weekend I competed in my 29th race of the year, and my second in Michigan’s gorgeous – and incredibly remote – Upper Peninsula. I earned the biggest, heaviest finisher’s medal I’ve ever seen!

The race was called the Pine Mountain 500, and it was held at the Pine Mountain Ski Resort in Iron Mountain. There’s a ski jump there, and alongside the jump is a 500-step stairway.

Advertisements

Where’s the Elevator Down? (The Inclinator Race Recap)

One week ago, I stumbled across a stair race online. I hadn’t heard about it before. I signed up. It was on a whim, but the race was different and cheap ($15). It was called the Inclinator, and this little race ended up being one of the toughest events I’ve ever done.

I’m showing off my bib number – they wrote it on my arm with a Sharpie. Good ol’ lucky number 7!

The Inclinator event happened at the Stairs on Division, a public stairway going up a hillside in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I had never been to these stairs before, but they remind me of

Follow the Footsteps (Tunnel to Towers Cleveland Tower Climb Race Recap)

I want to introduce you to a firefighter named Thomas Schoales. He’s 27, and nicknamed “Golden Boy” because of his constant wide smile.

He’s part of a family of first responders – his father and two brothers all worked as firefighters or police officers. One day, he responded to an emergency situation 10 blocks from his firehouse, and ran into a building to help. Shortly after that, the building collapsed – 500,000 tons of steel, concrete, and glass crashing to the ground. Thomas was one of fourteen men from Engine 4 in lower Manhattan (and one of 343 total firefighters) that died on September 11, 2001. His body would not be found in the wreckage until over four months later.

On Sunday, I had the honor and privilege of clipping that photograph of Thomas “Golden Boy” Schoales to my collar and carrying him with me while I competed in the Tunnel to Towers Cleveland Tower Climb.

The Longest, Hardest Stadium Climb I’ve Ever Done (2019 Storm the Stadium Race Recap)

I’ve done eight stadium races in the past five years, at three different southern California stadiums (Angel Stadium, the LA Memorial Coliseum, and the Rose Bowl). My ninth stadium race was this past weekend at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana, and it was longer and harder than any of the others.

The race is called Storm the Stadium, and it was put on by

My Second International Stair Race! (CN Tower Climb For Nature Race Recap)

I’ve raced up stairwells all over the United States, and last year I raced up the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Earlier today, I competed in my second international race, at the iconic CN Tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada!

Although it’s a completely different country, Toronto is only about a 4.5-hour drive from where I’m living in

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

I’ll Be Competing in a SIX-HOUR Stair Race Next Month! Here’s How You Can Help!

Hello again! I’ve been busy and haven’t updated this blog in nearly two weeks. Wow. Nothing to worry about – I’m taking good care of myself. But there is a lot of change coming, and I’m very excited. I’ll share everything in due time, but for now, I’ve registered for a few races I wanted to tell you about, including the longest, hardest, most challenging test of endurance I’ve ever signed up for: A SIX-HOUR STAIR RACE!

I get goosebumps just thinking about it: