Scale the Strat a big event for lung association

Rule No. 1 for running up 1,455 stairs — that’s 108 flights — as fast as humanly possible: Respect the stairs.

Rule No. 2: Pace yourself. Then, when you’re going as slow as you think you should, slow down even more. You will thank yourself about halfway to the top.

These are the rules that Steve Mann and Bill Boswell train by as they prepare for the fifth-annual Scale the Strat, a fundraiser for the American Lung Association in Nevada planned for Saturday. Last year, more than 400 people raced to the top of the Stratosphere Tower, representing family and friends with lung diseases.

The winner finished in 7 minutes, 19 seconds. It was so strenuous, paramedics had to administer oxygen to him.

Mann, 56, is vice president of table games at the Stratosphere. This will be his third year to participate in Scale the Strat. He is the team captain of Stratosphere employees who plan to race in the event, and he’s something of a fitness nut.

Last year, he climbed to the top of the Stratosphere in 11 minutes, 23 seconds.

Scale the Strat is supposed to be a fun thing to raise money for a good cause. But that’s not stopping Mann from gearing up for it like it’s an Olympic event.

He wears a 50-pound workout vest while training. A few days a week, Mann and some of his team members meet in the stairwell of the hotel to run up the stairs. They can’t use the tower because that is closed to the public, except on race day.

Mann calculates his lactic acid threshold and how to improve it. He also strategizes how to walk up a flight of stairs. Should he take two steps at a time or just one? Or maybe three?

“When you get into the stair climb, you’re going to be glad you trained hard,” he says, explaining his devotion. “Now that we’re a couple of weeks out, I wish I had done more training on the front end.”

Stair racing has become a bona fide competitive sport. Every year, stair races, some with cash awards, are held around the world. There is even a ranking of top stair runners. Thirty-seven of the world’s top 100 are registered for this year’s Scale the Strat, says Allison Newlon Moser, executive director of American Lung Association in Nevada.

“Stair racing has become our signature event around the country,” Moser says of the lung organization.

The Las Vegas version is fast becoming popular among those who follow the sport. There has even been talk of lobbying to make the Stratosphere Tower the site of the stair racing World Cup Final.

Most participants scale the Stratosphere to show their support of a friend or family member who has lung disease, Moser says.

Mann is doing this for his mother, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“That’s what pushes me,” Mann says. “Sometimes in the gym, people ask me why I’m training so hard. I say, ‘longevity.’ ”

Boswell, 54, is participating for the first time. He’s been using it as a reason to get back in shape. His mother also has COPD.

“She’s on oxygen,” he says. “That’s a motivator for me.”

The local chapter of the lung association raises more money with the Scale the Strat event than all of their other fundraisers. Last year, racers raised more than $130,000.

Eighty-seven percent of all money raised in the organization is earmarked for the community, Moser says. In Nevada, funds are used for programs such as teen tobacco prevention and asthma awareness.

Asthma is the No. 1 reason children miss school in Nevada, she says, and the No. 1 reason they visit the emergency room.

“We do a lot of training with kids to help them get ahead of the curve with asthma,” Moser says. “We teach them to be their own health advocate.”

For more information, or to sign up for the event, visit ScaleTheStrat.com.

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@
reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow @StripSonya on Twitter.