Climb to the Top

Lately, it seems that more and more cities are offering "climb to the top" races where participants race up the stairwells of tall buildings to see who can reach the top. Possibly the most famous of these stair climbs is the Empire State Building Run Up put on by the New York Road Runners.

This year, over 650 people climbed the 86 stories (1,576 stairs) to reach the summit. For the first time, the event was held at night so racers got a great New York City night view at the top. The fastest woman this year completed all 86 stories in 12 minutes, 39 seconds.

Stair climbing is considered to be a total body workout, especially when you use your arms and upper body along the railings to help propel forward. You can burn twice the calories per minute stairclimbing than running.

One of the best parts of training for a stair run is that stairs are EVERYWHERE for you to train on - for free! No gym membership required. Here is a great site that you can use to find public stair spaces to train at.

Have you ever participated in a stair run? Please share your experience in the comments!