Cathedral home to champion
runners
By: Estelle Tran
|
The elevators at
the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning are notorious for being
slow and inconvenient. But that doesn't bother Pitt alumnus Danny Chew. He posts the official building
records on his website.
He likes to climb the stairs - as fast as he can.
Chew, 45, set the current record for the fastest time running from the ground
floor to the 36th floor and back in 1993. He ran the stairs in 3 minutes and 38
seconds, a record that has remained untouched for 15 years.
Yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the day Chew set the record for the
most consecutive runs up the Cathedral stairs. On this day, Chew ran up the
stairs 101 times in 17 hours and 48 minutes:
I Stepclimbed 44,444 feet in 18 Hours on February 10 & 11, 2007
However, not everyone climbs the stairs with aspirations of earning a place on
Chew's website. Many athletes climb the stairs just to stay in shape during the
winter months.
At the Cathedral, runners, cyclists, hikers, triathletes and mountaineers find
a common place to exercise inside, away from the winter weather.
Stair runner Stephen Cummings holds the record for the fastest time running up
the stairs while touching every step with a time of 4 minutes and 50 seconds.
But Cummings is a cyclist at heart.
"Cyclists often lose bone density doing their sport. They can get slightly
osteoporotic," Cummings said. "It's so low impact that we actually
lose muscle and bone mass. That's why it's recommended to do load bearing
exercise similar to cycling, like running stairs, in the winter."
Chew thinks that running the stairs is a great fitness test for different kinds
of athletes.
"It is a
neutral ground for runners and bikers to meet and neither really has an
advantage over the other. We don't want to go on each other's turf," Chew
said.
Mountaineers use the Cathedral stairs to train for climbing Mt. Washington or
Mt. Everest. Chew said these adventurers often carry backpacks that weigh up to
80 lbs. and special four-pound shoes that cost $750.
He figured that 12 runs up the stairs is a vertical mile. Fifty-five trips up
the stairs is the equivalent of scaling Mt. Everest starting at sea level, but
most people start at 12,000 ft.
With all these people running the stairs in the evenings, there can be a lot of
traffic, said Cummings.
"Sometimes the Pitt rugby team runs the stairs. It's like a herd of
buffalo coming down. You can hear them from three floors away. It's pretty
scary because I'm a small guy," he said. "It's like from that movie
'Dances with Wolves' when he heard the buffalo coming a day in advance. But
it's really not safe to run down the stairs."
Pitt student and two time Ironman participant Brian Gierl said that the traffic
usually is not an issue because people usually take the elevators down and
people usually run in small groups. Triathletes are known to dominate the
stairs on Thursday nights.
Yet he maintains it's a friendly community and the stair climbers are not
cliquey.
"I guess you make friends because you kind of do that same thing, and you
talk on the way down in the elevator. We go at different paces. I should hope
I'm going faster than the guys with 80-pound packs on their backs,"
Cummings said.
On Wednesday nights, Chew runs with two or three sets of people because
"no one wants to go as long."
To his knowledge, no one has gone as long. Over the last 30 years, Chew has
climbed the Cathedral stairs more than 3,300 times. Since there are 764 steps
to climb in the Cathedral, Chew scaled over 2.5 million steps since he started
to keep track.
Before running the stairs, Chew recommends that every runner learns the
building. He explained that there are
only two stairways that lead to the top - stairwells A and G. Stairwell A is
the most direct route. By taking stairwell G, the runner needs to run through a
hall on floor 31, but the runner passes a water fountain this way.
Chew openly shares his stair climbing techniques with anyone who wants advice.
When making the 180 degree turns on the landings, he plants his foot in such a
way that he only has to put one foot on the landing. This sheds fractions of
seconds off his time.
"It's hard to get into the groove until the 14 and a half floor because
the stairs are too wide," he said.
All of the runners have their own keys to success ranging from wearing cheap
$30 Nikes to varying their paces.
Frequent stair climber Jon Osborne likes to detach himself from his surroundings.
"I listen to the same song. I don't look at the floor numbers, and I do
long division in my head to distract me."
Cummings makes sure not to run too fast so his heart rate doesn't spike. After
running too hard, the heart spikes in about 50 seconds. Cummings likes to run
with Chew to keep him on pace.
When Chew goes for a record, he stocks bananas, snack cakes, fig bars and
gallons of mixed Gatorade on the top floor to consume while waiting for the
elevator or riding the elevator down.
Cummings said that running the stairs is "exercise fun." The athletes
find their own amusement by running with friends, listening to music or taking
in their surroundings.
Gierl said, "Sometimes I see these dust bunnies that are enormous. They
are like the size of feet," he said. "There's not too much excitement
on the stairs. I've never found anyone trying to join the 34-floor-high
club."
In addition to the dozens of regulars who run the stairs at the Cathedral, many
people run the stairs for a physical challenge.
Pitt alumnus and casual stair runner Harold Baguinon explained what keeps him
coming back to the Cathedral stairs.
"It tires you out fast. It's not like running because you can keep going
when you get tired running. But you just have to keep going, even if you have
to crawl," Baguinon said. "You usually just pass out at the top, but
when you get there you really feel accomplished. Plus you get a great
view."