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I'm so behind in my blog. I have two posts that are 90% ready to go, but I have been too
Since
this isn't intended to be a full race review, I'll fast forward a bit. But first, here are few pictures which summarize what I'm skipping:
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| Friends & Family (thanks for the photo Madeleine!) |
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| My friends David & Scott |
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| Welcome to the jungle |
Race
time was at 8:00 AM, so I woke up around 7:00 AM to get ready. Around 7:20 AM,
I went to the fitness center (at the Stratosphere hotel) for a short warm-up.
Both Sproule and Michael had the same idea. Midway through my workout I
realized I had forgotten both my timing splits and my shot of 5-hour energy, so
in the middle of my warm-up I had to run back to my room.
Right
around 7:45 AM, I left the fitness center and met my father to give him a hug
for good luck. I then switched into my racing shoes and headed to the bottom of
the tower.
I was
one of the last racers to get in line, but still had a few minutes to kill. I
did a set of burpees to stay warm and then chit chatted with my fellow racers
to stay loose. Standing in line, I was surprised to learn that two of the
higher seeded racers couldn’t make it to the race. Therefore, I would be
entering the stairwell 4th, just behind Oz and just before David
Tromp.
Right
around 8:00 AM, the race organizers led us upstairs to the official start line.
Since the gap between racers would be 30 seconds, I was a little nervous that
David would overtake me near the end of the race. From experience, I know he is
faster than I am in the taller climbs. The course is 808 feet tall (Starting at
the 47’ mark and ending at the 855’ mark). As such, my goal time was 8 minutes
and I figured that David was capable of somewhere between 7:30 and 7:45.
In short
order, Sproule, Jesse, and Oz were in the stairwell. I set my metronome to 90
bpm and clipped it to my shirt. Next it was my turn to enter the stairwell!
I
methodically climbed to the beat of my metronome. It was a very smooth climb
and I used my arms as much as possible to conserve my quad muscles. After the
first few flights, I decided that I really liked the course. The stairwell was
very easy to use because the rails are easy to grip and are narrow enough apart
to use both sides effectively. Additionally, the majority of the tower is
configured like this: 20 steps à landing & 180 degree turn à 20 steps. This means that each
flight is very long, hence the course has relatively few turns. Finally, the 20
step configuration makes turning pretty easy;
as long as I started the flight with my outside foot, I would always
land with my inside foot on the landing*.
*For
those of you unfamiliar with climbing stairs competitively, it is much easier to turn on your inside foot
rather than your outside foot. If you pivot on your outside foot, your inside
leg will interfere with the rail. Try it and see.
At the 1st
rest area (which is approximately 25% the way through the race) I glanced down
at my watch. 2:11. I was already more than 10 seconds behind my planned finish
time!
At that
point, I didn't panic, but I made a small tactical error. Rather than speeding
up my metronome, I kept the same pace and focused on climbing efficiency. I couldn't believe I was so far off of my planned pace. At that point, I just
hoped that the rest area was a little higher up than Stan’s stairwell map
suggested.
Right
around the 4 minute mark, I realized I was in trouble. David Tromp had caught
up to me which meant that I was already 30 seconds behind him in the race!
Although I was prepared to let David pass, I didn't really want to let him
through. The stairwell was so narrow that there was little to no room to
squeeze by while climbing. If I let David pass, I would basically have to come
to a complete stop and wait for him to go around. This would then put me in an
awkward position if I wanted to pass him later in the race.
So I
gambled**. Instead of stopping, I picked up the pace. I knew that I had started
out too slow and although I was getting tired, I still felt that I could push
the pace. Although David is a great climber, it was likely he was suffering
more than I was since he went out so fast. I placed a bet that I could keep ahead of
David in the 2nd half of the race and make up some of the time I had
lost.
**This *is*
Vegas after all.
After
accelerating a little bit, David fell in right behind me and together we
continued our long march to the top. Although cognizant that David was behind
me, he stayed far enough back so that I didn't have to worry about him passing
me.
Around
in the mid-500s, I knew I had to go faster.
I was still behind schedule and I was running out of tower to climb.
At one
point (I’m guessing it was at the the 2nd rest area) the stair well
ended in blind hallway and I didn't know which way to turn. There weren't any
direction arrows or race volunteers present,
so I spent a moment deciding which way to go. The left passage didn't seem to go anywhere so I stepped to the right. Fortunately, this was the
correct direction and as I passed through the next doorway, I found a stairway
leading upward. What luck!
I picked
up the pace and I no longer cared that David was right on my tail. I ignored my
metronome and although I was climbing less efficiently, I was definitely going
faster.
Around
the 6 minute mark, David and I were in the lower 600s and I was still well
behind schedule. Although my heart rate was close to the redline and my lungs
were burning, my legs were still functional. Somewhere in the mid-600s, I made
my move. I was determined to drop David and break the 8 minute mark.
By the
lower to mid-700s, I had only gained a few steps on David as we were both
flying up the stairwell. I couldn't believe that David was still keeping up! What a beast
Finally,
we hit the top of the tower core. I glanced down at my watch and 7:15 flashed
into view. If I remembered my pacing chart correctly, I was still a few seconds
behind my goal time, but I knew I still had a chance to go sub-8:00. I sprinted
up the last 8 floors with all the power I had left, dropping David somewhere
along the way. With one or two flights to go, I had a nice surprise; I actually
caught up with Oz!
I
crossed the finish stopped my stopwatch. Oz immediately slumped to the floor
and I stumbled by and the looked at my watch. It said 7:58 which meant I had
beaten my goal time! I then glanced behind, looking for David but he still hadn't finished. A few moments after I had already turned away, I heard David
finish. He was perhaps 5 - 10 seconds behind me, so he definitely put up an
amazing time. What a feat!
I was so
tired that I spent a few moments resting on the floor; I was completely drained
and needed a couple minutes to catch my breath.
When I
finally recovered enough to stand and talk, I grabbed a cup of orange juice and
went around to congratulate the other climbers.
All in
all, I was very pleased with my performance. See the full race results here. Although I still haven’t regained all
of my prior endurance (I was sick throughout January) this race boosted my
confidence. In the span of a few minutes, I managed to turn a poor climb into a
pretty decent race. More importantly, I was able to keep up with David (a top
elite climber) during the latter half of the race. Although I’m still not ready
to compete for a podium spot, with another year of hard work, I think I’ll be
able to start climbing with the top elites.
Last but not least, here are a few photos capturing the rest of a great weekend.
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| Frankie Moreno rocks. 20 bucks well spent. |
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| It is a long way down |
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| What a view from the top! |
Post
Race notes
Effort:
A-
Strategy:
B-
Technique:
A
Overall:
B+
I
developed and popped 4 blisters during the climb. The cross section of the
rails are square rather than circular, so I have not developed the necessary callouses
on my hands. The next time I do this race, I will need to tape up my middle
fingers, just underneath the 2nd knuckle.
I’m
still trying to figure out why my splits were so slow during the 1st
half of the race. Clearly, 90 bpm was too slow, but I can’t figure out the root
cause of my error. Likely candidates are the published heights of the course,
overall stair count, and step height. Based on these calculations, I should
have climbed the tower in 8 minutes climbing somewhere between 84-88 steps (beats)
per minute. But to make sure I reached my goal on race day, I set my metronome
at 90 bpm. On the other hand, the steps in the Strat are somewhere between 7
and 7.2 inches, which is shorter than the 7.5 inch steps at the Hancock
building in Chicago (which I climbed the week prior). Since I felt that 88 bpm
was an optimal pace at the Hancock, I would predict my optimal pace at the
Strat to be around 92-95 bpm (or slightly higher since the Strat is a shorter
race). Next year, I will likely go out at 95 bpm, assuming my fitness levels
don’t drop off.
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