Runner's World

048 RUNNERSWORLD.CO.UK JUNE 2018

all the time. There’s a growing scene in India

China Hong Kong.’

Gallagher did his first race at the Gherkin in

London in 2013. Instantly hooked he then tackled

the Heron Tower and Tower 42 the Spinnaker the

Empire State Building and a string of others. He’s

an ultramarathoner but he’s yet to find anything

that comes close to the physical and mental

torment of a stair race: ‘I really like the honesty of

the sport. There’s no fooling the stairs: you try to

take it easy but the stairs won’t let you. In other

races there are times when you can cruise a bit

but this isn’t possible in stair running.’

Many stair runners trumpet the crossover

benefits. Quads glutes and core are all

strengthened lactate thresholds increased and

utilising the handrail to help pull yourself up (a bona

fide technique that the pros spend years honing)

provides a full-body workout. Bad weather is no

barrier to training on your nearest stairwell and

its quick-hit-return equation is another plus in our

time-starved times; if you’re prepared to embrace

the pain results are pretty much guaranteed.

‘I took about four minutes off my 5K after six weeks

of just stair running’ says Gallagher.

Then there’s the lack of impact. As any runner

knows the attrition rate of churning out dozens

of miles a week can be high and the consequent

injuries are spirit-sapping. But on the stairs while

MY LEGS ARE STRONG AND MY

BREATHING IS REGULAR AND

THE MORNING SUN HAS JUST

CREPT OVER THE MOUNTAIN

● (^) Niesen-Treppen-Lauf
Switzerland – 11674 steps
● (^) Shanghai Tower
Shanghai – 3398 steps
● (^) One World Trade Center
New York – 2226 steps
● (^) Rose Bowl
Pasadena – 2128 steps
● (^) International Conference
Centre
Hong Kong – 2120 steps
● (^) Willis Tower
Chicago – 2115 steps
● (^) Menara Tower
Kuala Lumpur – 2058 steps
● (^) Taipei 101
Taiwan – 2046 steps
● (^) China World Summit Wing
Hotel Beijing – 2041 steps
● (^) Eureka Tower
Melbourne – 1958 steps
Ten of the world’s most gruelling
stair races. Tempted?
Just imagine trying to run up it was my first thought. My second to Google
just that. And sure enough since 1990 – but with a 13-year hiatus as it changed its
focus from a small group of niche professional endurance athletes to a larger field
of amateur loons – there’s been a race. Once a year the railway comes to a standstill
until 10am to allow a field of 300 or so to subject themselves to untold suffering in
idyllic surroundings. The rewards? Prestige and a few spectacularly unglamorous
prizes (Odor-Eaters stood out here). The race is a vertical mile – you run from the
693m valley f loor to the 2362m summit – the incline approaches 70 per cent in
places and nearly all the competitors are local. It was an impossibly seductive mix.
Arriving at Mülenen the village at the foot of the mountain from where the
funicular begins at 6:20am on race day I find an atmosphere similar to any mid-
size parochial race. Names are being taken; numbers pinned; timing chips adjusted;
gels stored; stretching routines f lirted with. The race organisers keep up a crackly
monologue of instructions struggling to be heard over the sound of the surging
meltwater river we’ll immediately cross when the race gets under way.
As with every stair race a mass start is impossible. At the Niesenbahn it’s
organised into pulses of two runners every 20 seconds with the best stacked towards
the final slots. Most seem to be runners rather than step specialists though there’s a
conspicuous glut of rippling quads on show. Advice varies. There is little consensus
on the number of steps to take in one go: some say one; others are adamant it should
be two; one even suggests three – the strategy employed by Colombian Francisco
Sanchez who won the 1991 race in a record time of 52:22. In 2004 it was decided
to end the race at the Niesen summit rather than the last step adding 250m to the
distance. The record for the new course set in 2011 by Emmanuel Vaudan is 55:55.
Step tactics may differ but everyone is in agreement about one thing: don’t go
off too hard. I don’t need to be told. At my first step race the inaugural Spinnaker
Tower run in Portsmouth six years ago I went off like the clappers completed the
final few f loors on my hands and knees and spent 20 minutes dry-retching in the
toilets at the finish. Chastened I ran the Empire State Building (ESB) Run-Up six
months later listening to classical music with my heart rate hardly deviating from
150bpm. That had been encouraging – but that race’s 1576 steps were a little more
than a seventh of what I’m about to tackle.
Am I prepared? Difficult to say. My training has been improvised at best built on
three central pillars: strapping myself to the gym’s Versaclimber until my quads and
glutes groaned and the cleaners moaned at the puddle of sweat; tackling as many
hills as possible on my road bike; and hitting the stairwell at work. Hard.
ON THE UP
If I’d been looking for evidence of stair-running’s growth in the years since I nearly
redecorated the Spinnaker Tower it came in the response of those colleagues who
caught me in the act. Six years ago I might as well have been openly urinating in my
chosen training stairwell such were the looks of bewildered indignation. But this
time round there was altogether more understanding; all seemed to have heard of
stair running and a few had even tackled one of the UK’s growing number of races
such as London’s Tower 42 or the Christie Tower Run in Manchester.
There is empirical data too. The Towerrunning World Association the sport’s
international governing body (the mere existence of such tells its own story)
estimates that the number of races worldwide has more than doubled since 2010.
A record 266 events in more than 50 countries were staged in 2017 from Bogota to
Beijing Pasadena to Penang Ljubljana to Las Vegas. That’s close to 140000 stair
runners of all levels competing each year and a growing number of these events
are in the UK. ‘There are new races all the time’ says Patrick Gallagher founder
of the independent Tower Running UK organisation. ‘When I set this up in 2013
there were six races. Last year there were 14. Globally it’s popping up in new places
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