Winner Winner Images: Joseph Feil

BIT DUSTY

“The Empire State Building is an older stairwell; it’s narrow, but seems to have high ceilings, so it doesn’t feel as claustrophobic. It’s dusty in there, though. When I finished the race, my legs and glutes were tired, but it was mainly my lungs ... I had that feeling in the back of my throat like an iron or blood-like taste, because I absolutely burnt myself. I was coughing up dusty, mucusy stuff. It really hits your lungs quite hard. I imagine the building doesn’t get aired out very often; obviously everyone uses the lifts. Some of the doors were open at each level, but it probably doesn’t have as much airflow as it could. Outside, it was sleeting and snowing, so it was actually a bit of a relief to be somewhere a bit cold at the finish.”

CUTTING CORNERS

“My technique was two stairs at a time, then grab the end of the banister and with two arms, swing myself around the corner so I didn’t have to do so much running on the flat landings. At the end of the race the lats on my right-hand side ‒ because I was grabbing the banister and swinging myself around the corner ‒ were a little bit sore, but that was fine. In rowing we use our lats and arms a lot more than runners do.

“I think the margin I won by was about a minute. Racing is easier when you’re out on your own. Towards the top I was maxing-out. I was absolutely spent, but I went really hard early and had no idea of the capacity of the race or my capacity in the context of the race.”

STAIR MESSIAH

“I’ve had a couple of stair climbers email me or Facebook me since the win asking for training advice. It would be the ideal cross-training method for rowing. If you were honest about it, you’d head to the Eureka Tower and do three reps of those stairs ‒ three 12-minute bursts.

“It’s a new world I’ve been exposed to. Some people follow these climbs around the world. I’ve since heard of a few other events, like the Sydney Tower run in July, which I actually think I’ll be overseas for with rowing, but I’d love to do that. That’s probably one of the biggest stair climbs in Australia.”

GAIN FOR PAIN

“Stair climbing is much better in the gain for pain stakes compared to rowing. The amount of interest that’s come out of this competition compared to wins I’ve been involved with in rowing is amazing.”

MANHATTAN DASH

“My flight out of New York left at 4pm. The race finished at 11am. I needed to do some media after the race, then get a trophy, then get back to my hotel by 12.15pm. It was snowing, so the trains were down. So I actually ran from the Empire State Building after the competition, through the snowy streets of Manhattan, down Fifth Avenue, past Gucci, past Prada, in my tracksuit, with a trophy in my hand and just made the shuttle bus to the airport!”

– James Smith