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! Read the rest of this entry »
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!
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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 Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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 Read the rest of this entry »
A big hello to everyone that’s discovering Keep It Up, David for the first time! I’m glad you’re here.
My name is David. I live in Los Angeles, and I’m 39 years old. In January 2010, I began eating better and exercising more, so I could lose weight. So far, so good – I’ve lost and kept off 160 pounds! But it’s a tough road, and I need to keeping finding new ways to keep motivated and on-track. I’ll blog about my progress and share my struggles and successes. Join me on my journey!
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