When making a choice between the elevator and the stairs, Gabriel Kriz will almost always take the stairs — at a run.
Kriz, 22, trains for staircase racing when he’s not working his 40-hour-a-week job at Espress-OH in the Ohio Union. He plans to pick up classes again in the winter. Kriz studies human nutrition and dietetics.
Growing up in Cleveland, Kriz worked at the OMNI Fitness Club, where friends and coworkers exposed him to staircase racing.
After he started training, Kriz began his racing career with “Tackle the Tower” in Cleveland in 2006. He raced up 42 floors of the Terminal Tower and placed 29th out of about 1,000 competitors.
While racing, Kriz said he climbs two steps at a time and uses the stair rails to incorporate more than just his lower body.
Kriz traveled to Chicago for his next two stair climbing events. In November 2006, he raced up the tallest building in the country, Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower. At 18 years old, he ran up 103 floors, equaling 2,109 steps, in 23 minutes and 16 seconds.
“When I got to the top of the Sears Tower, I felt so good after finishing that I felt I could take the elevator down and do it all over again,” he said with a wide grin. “That’s when I knew I wanted to keep doing this.”
Nearly two months later, Kriz made the voyage back to Chicago to race up the steps of the Aon Center Building and had his best performance yet. He ran up 80 floors — 1,643 steps — in a little more than 15 minutes. He placed first in his age group.
But he didn’t accomplish it without a struggle.
“I was getting very tired at the top and I was coughing a lot,” Kriz said. “I was getting a little sick and I was coughing up blood. I thought I would have to stop, but I just kept going.”
Kriz’s story will conclude Monday.
