Step aerobics on stairway to hell

Climbing up to the next floor will never be the same for Herald reporter SIMON HENDERY.

AUCKLAND - Traditional nightmare: your spiralling body plummets endlessly to nowhere and you wake gasping and covered in sweat.

Sky Tower nightmare: you gasp and sweat as you drag your body up an endless concrete spiral.

After a while plunging into an abyss seems like a pleasant alternative.

The second annual G-Shock Sky Tower Vertical Challenge, up 53 flights of stairs in New Zealand's tallest building, attracted 750 keen participants of diverse athletic ability on Saturday.

As runners headed up the tower in waves of 30 every five minutes, expert advice was that the 200m sprint to the foot of the tower was a crucial period - a chance to jockey for a good position ahead of the 1081-step climb.

The starter said "go" and I nudged my way past as many other runners as possible, dived through the tower doorway, sprinted up the first four flights - and my legs turned to rubber. The nightmare had begun.

Others suffered the same fate. After frantic elbowing and overtaking on the early flights, energy was quickly sapped and we settled down for the long, lumbering convoy to the top.

For a painful 49 more floors - each level is clearly numbered so there is no confusion about how far you still have to go - it was a case of gulping for air and hauling myself up the steps two at a time with the help of the handrails at what seemed like a plodding pace.

Watching in-tower camera coverage of the elite racers later, it seemed they used a similar technique, but could rely on superior fitness to get them to the top quicker.

Wellington athlete Jonathan Wyatt, who won the event in a record 5min 17s, said his success was down to strength and fitness.

The 26-year-old world mountain running champion had not climbed any steps in training but is running 100km a week as he builds up to represent New Zealand in the 10,000m at next year's Sydney Olympics.

Aucklander Maree Bunce took 24 seconds off her own record in the women's race, hitting the lower observation tower, 200m above ground, in 7min 3s.

For Bunce the tower climb was part of her buildup to the Rotorua marathon.

Stairs became part of her regular running programme wherever she found them.

Training was less of an issue for many taking part in the oddly named "fun" section of the event.

Some said they had not done any running in recent weeks, while one bloke said the extent of his training was that he had stopped smoking 12 hours earlier.

* Simon Hendery's time of 8min 42s gave him 45th place out of 352 runners who competed in the "fun" section of the Vertical Challenge.