Tower running

The staircase (also Towerrunning, Stair Climbing, Skyscraper Racing or Vertical Running) is a sports competition in which the athletes climb a skyscraper, a tower or a staircase in the wild.

Historical development

The first documented stair climbing competition with timekeeping was held in Paris in 1905 up to the first platform of the Eiffel Tower.

The modern era of the stair flight began in 1978 with the first orientation of the Empire State Building Run Up in New York and the CN Tower Climb in Toronto. Besides these two in 2013 to 36 times races held in North America, there are many more flights of stairs, which have established themselves and have now organized over ten times. In Asia, the Swissotel Vertical Marathon looks to Singapore with 25 sweeps back on the longest history. The Perlachturm run in Augsburg is the most commonly discharged stair running event in Germany with 24 editions since 1989 and also the first flight of stairs in a historic building. The run is considered a classic sprint stairs (261 steps), the record is held by Roland Wegner with 47.28 seconds.

Training

Originally the staircase served as the variation in the training of athletes, football players or other athletes. Just as when mountain running, the leg muscles is climbing stairs running up more quickly than in normal running, thereby increasing the fitness can improve faster. The staircase claims the thighs, calves and abdominal muscles significantly stronger. The movement in the vertical, the leg extension ( quadriceps femoris), the thigh backs ( biceps femoris) and the large gluteal muscles ( gluteus maximus) are especially trained. Through the staircase both strength and endurance can be improved. The energy consumption in the management of stairs or steep uphill gradients can reach up to ten times its on a horizontal track.

Towers and lines

Most stair climbing events are held in skyscrapers and towers. The world's tallest towers and skyscrapers with flights of stairs are the CN Tower Toronto in Toronto, the Taipei 101 in Taipei, the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Willis Tower in Chicago. In the highest skyscraper in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, so far no Towerrunning event took place. The indoor runs with the highest numbers of stages are the " Millennium Tower Run Up " in Vienna with 2529 levels at 3 ascents and the Fight for Air Climb Chicago in the Presidential Towers at 2340 levels in 4 towers. The most famous flight of stairs takes place each year in early February at the Empire State Building Run Up in New York. Participation in the event is by invitation only to the New York Road Runners and usually requires corresponding successes in other Towerrunning events or series. The record in the Empire State Building keeps Australian Paul Crake. It took 9 minutes and 33 seconds for the 1,576 levels also in historical buildings, such as the Perlachturm in Augsburg or the Bennington Monument regularly flights of stairs instead.

Only a few flights of stairs will take place on exterior routes, such as along mountain paths, among which are especially very long compared to the tower runs gradually rich contests. The longest flight of stairs takes place since 2005 in Radebeul ( Germany ): The Saxon Everest Treppenmarathon total of 39,700 steps are on a circuit in the vineyards of Radebeul near 100 laps up and down to cover with an overall increase of 8,848 meters. This height difference corresponds exactly to the current official height of Mount Everest, which is the basis for the naming of the event. In addition, the distance to be traveled in the horizontal plane with 84.39 km corresponds to a double marathon. The record for individual starters is less than 14 hours, within 24 hours 144 ascents and descents were completed. Other important flights of stairs on exterior lines are among others the Swiss sneezing running with 11,674 steps on the longest stairway in the world and the Treppencup in the Austrian partenen with 3610 levels. Since 2012 the Reißeck Wadlbeißer will also be held along the mountain railway in Zandlach ( Austria ) with 8971 levels.

Geographical distribution of events

A total of 192 official flight of stairs events were held worldwide in 2012, with the North American continent with 112 flights of stairs is a leader. In addition to the Empire State Building Run Up and the CN Tower Climb there is a regional clustering of high-class Towerrunning events, especially in Chicago. In Europe, in particular the cities of Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Vienna, Basel, Warsaw and London is a venue for international stair climbing events. A strong Towerrunning scene developed in Eastern Europe, where there is a great tradition, especially in Poland and the Run Up series in the Czech Republic in 2008 for the first time a multi- race stair race series was held. In Southern Europe and Scandinavia there are only sporadic events.

In Asia, the flights of stairs mainly focus on the cities of the Far East and the Gulf states. Large and international high-class participants filled fields can be found every year in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Taipei, where since 2005 the Taipei 101 Run Up will be held. On 15 June 2008, the German extreme athlete Thomas Dold defeated the 91 floors and 2046 steps of the " Taipei 101 ", at that time the highest skyscraper in the world. He needed to 10 minutes and 53 seconds.

Great potential for the future consists in South and Central America, where major events are driven by the growing media interest and the commitment of many organizers and associations, especially in Bogota and Sao Paulo discharged. On the African continent so far no official stair climbing event took place. A planned in 2011 event in Nairobi was canceled.

Flights of stairs in the German-speaking

According to the United States of America find most stair climbing events in Germany (19 contests) and Austria (13 contests) instead, with an extremely wide range of topics of distances and number of stages. Race in the German-speaking countries with an international cast are the SkyRun Fair Tower of Frankfurt, the Towerrunning Basel and the Millennium Tower Run Up in Vienna. A characteristic feature of the staircase sport in Germany and Austria are sprint races with less than 400 steps. Twelve of the 13 shortest flights of stairs of the 2012 season were held in Germany and Austria. On the other hand, the three longest races of the 2012 season took place in Germany.

Staircase running as a competitive sport

Competitive mode

Most stair climbing events, the time and place of each participant is detected. For this purpose, the timing has prevailed through his transponder at almost every race. As competition mode, the single-start method is applied on many runs in which the runners run through the route one by one or in small groups and the fastest net time on decisive for the ranking. Few Towerrunning events, including the internationally known, however, the Empire State Building Run Up to use the mass start method, in which participants simultaneously start the race and the finishing order determines the destination. Increasingly, other competition formats are established. This includes tournament formats with several consecutive laps, multi Climbs with several towers or more ascents in a tower and race with finite total time and Count of completed laps on a circuit.

Prices

For some events, there is money and prizes and in some cases leading elite stair runners are invited to the race and get for example, free flights or accommodation provided.

Coordination of the flight of stairs Sports

On the coordination of the flight of stairs Sports several national and international organizations are involved. A leading role in this respect takes the Towerrunning World Associazion one under the leadership of the German President Sebastian Wurster. In Towerrunning World Council as the central sport policy making organ of this Association representatives of the national associations, athletes and race organizers are organized. The Towerrunning World Associazion covers all races held in a database, published the race results of the flights of stairs and leads world rankings " Towerrunning World Cup". National staircase organizations who cooperate with the Towerrunning World Association in hosting major events, have evolved over the past two years, including in the United States of America, Austria, Germany and Australia. In Switzerland, there is currently no national staircase Association. Furthermore involved in the coordination of the stair run - competitive sport is touting a commercial international flight of stairs Series in International Skyrunning Federation, which co-supervised in addition to the orientation of mountain running events ( Skyrunning ) and some flights of stairs and with the Vertical World Circuit. In Europe, associations and marketing initiatives as Run2Sky or the Chris -from- Paris - organization also play a role in the coordination and marketing of the staircase sport.

Towerrunning World Cup

The Towerrunning World Cup is one of Towerrunning Office Vienna in the 2009 season and established since 2013 assisted by the Towerrunning World Association scoring system for the comparison of international stair climbing elite. Based on a points score the best athletes are calculated over the entire season. For the Towerrunning World Cup almost all discharged during a race of the season will be considered. Unlike other stair climbing rating systems especially sprint races, ultra - stair runs and races with complex tournament formats ( eg multi Climbs ) are included in the rating. The respective top 30 runners in the race evaluated obtain a descending points value, which is multiplied by a weighting factor assigned according to defined criteria. The best eight results during a season are counted for each runner. The central framework of each season are the 16 to 20 so-called Masters races, which are selected by the Towerrunning World Association due to the participant fields the last two years as well as technical and organizational criteria and given a higher weighting factor. Since 2013, the ranking is continuously created based on the results of the last 52 weeks.

The World Cup ranking also serves as a qualifying basis for invitation race and the official World Cup final race in Bogota, which is traditionally organized by the Colombian Association of Athletics Federations, the National Olympic Committee of Colombia and the Towerrunning World Association on 8 December each year. Due to the altitude of the Colombian capital, the race is considered to be particularly challenging. The World Cup final race is in relation to the total prize money and the advertised prizes richest race of the season.

The Towerrunning World Cup has been won since the introduction in the 2009 season four times in a row by the German Thomas Dold stair runners. The women's vote saw with Suzanne Walsham (Australia, 2009 and 2012 ), Melissa Moon (New Zealand, 2010) and Cristina Bonacina (Italy, 2011) so far, three different winners. The Nations Cup was won in 2009, 2011 and 2012 from Germany, the United States continued in 2010 by U.S..

Other international flight of stairs series

The advertised by the International Federation of Skyrunning since 2009 Vertical World Circuit is the currently the only flight of stairs next to the series Towerrunning World Cup, which consists of courses in several countries. In the 2013 season, the series includes nine races in eight countries. The Vertical World Circuit since 2011 includes a separate final race to the top ranked runners are invited. Both the victory in the final race and in the overall series doped to 2012 with prize money. Thomas Dold won the Vertical World Circuit in all four discharged obligations. In the women's Suzanne Walsham (Australia) starts as a defending champion in the 2013 season.

In the 2009 season also was the race series Run2Sky Europe, consisting of organized Towerruning events in Basel, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Berlin. The series was initiated by Thomas Dold and won. In the women's standings, the then 11 -year-old German youth stair runner Marie- Fee Breyer prevailed. The series was canceled after the first season. A new edition is currently not foreseeable.

Major flights of stairs in high-rise buildings

Athletes ( selection)

• Thomas Dold, a specialist for the long haul
• Matthias Jahn
• Roland Wegner, a specialist in the short-haul
• Paul Crake, record holder when run on the Empire State Building

Flight of stairs as a discipline of the fire department sport

Staircases are also increasingly popular with fire departments, training is usually with full protective equipment. There are now numerous for their own competitions. Examples are the Arque Skyrun over the 54 floors of the Frankfurt Fair Tower, or the Berlin Firefighter Stairrun who have to cope with 39 floors up to the roof terrace of the Park Inn Berlin -Alexanderplatz in the two- man teams in full protective equipment and connected breathing apparatus.

Furthermore, it was aligned in November 2008 for the first time a " SkyRun " for firefighters in Dusseldorf, at this event in Düsseldorf Rhine Tower a team has overcome the 960 levels within 7 minutes and 48 seconds. Even the Saxon Mt Everest Treppenmarathon 2012 occurred while running the invitation for the first time with the team THW Vs. Fire department to a group with respiratory protective equipment.

Trivia

In the film, Rocky Sylvester Stallone aka Rocky Balboa defeats the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Many tourists imitate these cinematic flight of stairs in Philadelphia.