C6 Tuesday, August 13, 2013
FITNESS & WELL-BEING Suzy Walsham reaches the top of the China World Summit Wing hotel to win the women’s vertical run. Photo: AFP
TOP
FLIGHTS
Tower running is booming and the sport’s governing body is determined to make it an Olympic event, writes Mark Graham
A
thlete Suzy Walsham is hard to beat on a flat surface, be it a road or a track. When bounding up steps to the top of a skyscraper, she is virtually uncatchable. Walsham is the poster girl for tower running, whereby competitors race to the top of iconic skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building in New York City and, two weekends ago, the 330-metre-high China World Summit Wing hotel in Beijing. Walsham, a former Australian national track athlete, was the fastest woman up the 2,041 steps of the 82-storey hotel in 11 minutes, 7 seconds. “The race was tough,” says Walsham, who works in Singapore as a manager for a computer security firm. “Although the stairs were not very high, the stairwell was quite complicated, with random flat bits of running, changing direction, changing stairwells and so on. But that also made the race interesting.”
Who knew stairwells had such intricacies? Stair climbing, in fact, has a global schedule of races comprising 150 events across 25 countries. Michael Reichetzeder, executive director of the Tower-Running World Council, is on a mission to make tower running an Olympic sport. Beijing was a new addition to and the fourth stage of this year’s eight-race Vertical World Circuit, which began in 2009. The premier circuit also includes the race up the Empire State and other buildings in Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore and Brazil. The sport is perhaps tailor-
At the top of the building, you can barely walk. You try to take back your breath CLEMENT DUMONT, RUNNER
made for Asian cities, with their ever-increasing number of high-rises. Last week, the Shanghai Tower – though still an ongoing project at the Old Docks – topped out at 580 metres to become China’s highest building and the world’s second-highest behind Dubai’s Burj Khalifa (828 metres). Scheduled for completion by 2015, the Shanghai Tower will be 632 metres high. Other Chinese cities are planning or constructing their own megastructures. The Beijing Vertical Run was a thrilling event, where the 600 entrants jostled and panted their way up the narrow stairwells of the downtown tower. As well as the satisfaction of finishing such an arduous challenge, they were also able to enjoy the rare sight of Beijing on a pollution-free day. “The race was one of the longest I have done this year, so it was quite different to my last race in Bratislava [in Slovakia] that was only 22 floors and took less than two minutes, 30 seconds. In Beijing, I felt pretty
strong up until about the 70th floor and then I started to feel quite tired and slowed down a lot over the last 10 floors,” Walsham says. “Often my friends are amazed I do this sport … they say they would get tired after about three floors and think I am crazy.” There is a certain madness – or masochism – associated with the sport, not to mention very real medical risks. Even super-fit athletes are pushing their bodies to the limit by engaging in such intense activity, subjecting the heart, lungs and limbs to a far more vigorous workout than road running, or plodding along on gently moving gym treadmills. But as with all sports, the danger is part of the appeal, as well as the more whimsical aspect of ascending landmark buildings in major world cities. Hong Kong-based Frenchman Clement Dumont is one such high-rise running tourist, who plans holiday weekends around events. His wife Sabrina also regularly participates. “As a trail runner, this type of
intense and brief effort is not something I usually experience,” he says. “At the top of the building, you can barely walk. You try to take back your breath for a good five minutes. But I recover really fast; within an hour I feel fine and can go and visit the city and enjoy the afternoon with the family. The only thing that lasts for a day is the dry throat probably from the dry air.” Dumont does little specific training for stair running, figuring that his regular route, climbing up to Sunset Peak on Lantau Island, is not too dissimilar to tackling a steep stairwell. But Dumont, who organises the TransLantau trail running race, acknowledges he needs to work on his handrail technique, mastering the art of using the metal wall fixtures to help gain extra speed. Vertical races attract a mixed bag of athletes, from sprinters to long-distance specialists. Everyone with access to a highrise building – which means pretty much everyone in Hong
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belt before Kong, Beijing or “stepping up”. Shanghai – can Number of steps in the “I love to train for a vertical highest Vertical World Race challenge myself running race, or – the 391-metre Taipei and this sport is simply use stair 101 building certainly very running as a quick challenging, and right and effective now, it takes me all over the workout. world for competitions and I One competitor in Beijing love it. I also have fewer injuries who had a few stairwell location now that I am training more on insights was the Wing hotel’s the stairs, although I still do general manager, Thomas quite a bit of running, so the Schmitt-Glaeser. He also picked sport has given me a mini up a few tips from German athletic-career revival. compatriot and champion stair “It is the kind of sport anyone racer Thomas Dold, who won can do, and is especially good for the event in 9:55. people with busy lives – you only “I discovered that it is best to need a building, you don’t have save your energy for the long to worry about the weather, and run. If you start off like a bullet, in 15 to 30 minutes, you can get a you will burn out by the 10th really, really tough workout. floor,” says Schmitt-Glaeser. “If you are prone to injuries “You also need to keep rhythm due to the pounding of running, and don’t count the steps which this is the perfect alternative – it distracts and demotivates. is lower-impact, and builds up a Having said that, after 30 floors, lot of power and strength in your it seemed the stairs would legs,” Walsham says. never finish.” “Just make sure you catch the Be warned: the intensity of lift back down as it is harder on vertical running means it is not the legs walking down than it is for neophytes. Walsham had running up.” many years of successful track life@scmp.com and distance running under her
PERSONAL BEST
Soulful sabbatical leaves executive feeling richer ................................................ Ben Sin life@scmp.com It was just a few weeks after Lunar New Year and the news hit Lance Diaresco hard: his close friend, a fellow high-flying, high-earning executive in Hong Kong, had died of a brain aneurysm. For Diaresco, the sudden loss was a wake-up call. “Many of us busy executives in Hong Kong spend our time on our career,” says Diaresco, 46, who was the chief marketing officer and vice-president of brand management at clothing brand Levi Strauss & Co. “We tend to forget that there are other important things in life, like relationships and health.” He was already considering a break from corporate life after 22 years of marketing and branding for major corporations in China and the Philippines, ranging from Disney to Colgate to Procter & Gamble. The tragedy strengthened his resolve. Within three months, Diaresco had quit his job and embarked on a worldwide
journey, one he’s dubbed a “purposeful sabbatical”. The goal during the ongoing 18-month trip is to explore his creative and spiritual side, live life to the fullest and give back to the community. He started with Europe. Using Berlin as a base (because he enjoys the art scene there) he travelled to France, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Croatia and Israel. Diaresco played each trip by ear: booking one-way tickets, with no accommodation or plans lined up. “I would arrive and look for a bed and breakfast. Then I’d explore the city on foot
Getting lost or being in a new place forces you to listen to your intuition LANCE DIARESCO
and try to meet and adapt to the local culture,” he says. After four months in Europe, he went around Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Myanmar and his native Philippines, and India. He wandered off the beaten path – often getting lost – but he enjoyed it. “I think getting lost or being in a new place forces you to listen to your intuition,” he says. More importantly, he learned to relax: “Every business trip I had gone on before had a fixed itinerary and it was all about being efficient and getting things done. This trip showed me that sometimes it’s best to just relax and go with the flow.” There was the time he got lost hiking up a mountain in Portugal. By the time he made it to the top after a long detour, he was minutes away from missing the final bus – the only way out. But a group of Korean tourists spotted Diaresco from afar and notified him. “I am a firm believer that if you approach something with the right mindset and a good heart, you attract positive energy,” he says. “Everywhere
Lance Diaresco quit his highpressure job to travel the world.
I’ve gone, I’ve met good people.” In Asia, Diaresco travelled to rural regions and volunteered with children’s charities, such as Child Haus, a shelter for young cancer patients in the Philippines, and Studer Trust, a Myanmese group that aims to build schools. In his spare time, he meditated and did yoga. He also rediscovered an old passion while suspended a few thousand feet above Cappadocia in Turkey, on a hot-air balloon. At that moment, as he was snapping photos, he realised he wanted to share his shots with more than just Facebook friends. “I have always loved photography – I’m selftaught – so I decided to try to hold an exhibition.” With his connections in Hong Kong, a few e-mails and phone calls was all it took to set up an exhibition at the Amelia Johnson Contemporary gallery last March. The images included portraits of everyday people and scenic shots ranging from Balinese beaches to Israel’s Masada mountain. The proceeds went to Child Haus.
During his nine months away, Diaresco developed a fresh outlook on life. “I realised that too many people define success by wealth and social status, strength by physical power,” he says. “This sabbatical has enriched my mind, body and spirit.” Diaresco returned to Hong Kong in May. His travels, especially the social work, have caught the attention of many. He says a few friends have been inspired to take similar breaks, and within weeks of his return, South Africa’s Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife invited him to join their conservation research and community development. He will be heading to South Africa in October. But first, he’ll spend two months in New York, where he plans to speak to publishers about a possible photo book, and to volunteer at charity Christopher’s Haven. He plans on returning to work in Hong Kong, but for now, his journey is only just reaching an intermission. He jokes that he’ll be broke soon with all his travels. But he says: “It’s all worth it.”