While the East struggled to find enough snow to host snowshoe races, the West alternated between drought and cold blasts of arctic air ... could racing up buildings be the solution?

February 26, Denver, CO
http://www.runtheregister.com/

From the Boulder Daily Camera, February 18:

In Boulder, it's no surprise to find hard-core runners willing to tackle the icy, north-facing slopes of Green Mountain or Bear Peak in the depths of winter. You wouldn't even be shocked to meet a hardy few who cheerily "run" up, say, Pikes Peak in mid-January.

But for most of us, the winter months aren't the best time to do much uphill slogging.

Enter the inaugural Run the Register event in downtown Denver, a race in which runners seeking an anaerobic, thigh-burning time trial can do the whole thing indoors. Runners will depart from the first floor of the Wells Fargo building in 15-second intervals to scurry up 47 floors (1,014 steps) in echoing stairwells.

"I've done plenty of outdoor 'stair' races, if you include (Mount) Sanitas and Pikes Peak," says Boulder runner Lisa Goldsmith, who won the Pikes Peak ascent for women in 2005 and who plans to run "the register" Feb. 26. "We hardly ever race in stairwells in Boulder, so this won't be boring."   (Read more)

Lisa won the Run the Register, clocking 6 minutes, 41 seconds for the 47 floors. It was the first stair climb ever for the 2005 U.S. masters mountain runner of the year, who also placed a very close 4th overall. 1,050 people ran the first-year event, a fund-raiser for lung research.   Lisa also leads in garnering donation/sponsorship!

March 11 - Boston, MA
http://www.lungma.org/

Two weeks later, Lisa went to Boston for another fundraising stair climb for the American Lung Association.   She writes:

Oh, yeah, baby - I leave Boulder at 11:35 pm in a blizzard, arrive on the red eye at 5:15 am, take the water taxi to downtown, walk 6 blocks to One Boston Place, run really hard for 5 minutes, then go to Brunch with my brother and hang in Boston!!!

I saw this stair race as an opportunity to 1) challenge myself in "another realm"; 2) thought I might be OK at it; 3) visit with my brother (who I adore and haven't seen in six years!); 4) participate in a "Cause".

Inadvertently, I am also benefiting because these past 2-3 weeks I have had some of the toughest workouts that I have had in years, and it's fun to do something completely different - I feel like I have been in "Scott Elliott Stair Training Camp" and we've had a killer time 'hurting' each other!   Some of the best memories from my entire racing career have been the training 'bouts' with friends.

Lisa won again (by almost a minute) in 5:17, and nabbed third place overall.   The event raised $23,399.