The Chicago Hustle is a stair climb up what used to be called the John Hancock Center in Chicago. This building was renamed a few years ago, and technically it is no longer called the Hancock. The annual stair climb was also renamed when the Hancock building lost its real name, going from Hustle up the Hancock to the Chicago Hustle.
The Hustle is 94 floors. Each climber is assigned a wave, and my wave had a 2:00pm start time. I arrived at the Hancock around 1:15pm, dropped oO a backpack at a Hilton hotel across the street where there was gear check, and headed to the basement of the Hancock. The organizers send waves to the starting area at 15-minute intervals, and then climbers are dispatched every 15 seconds. The staircase I climbed was normal size as far as I can tell. I passed maybe 20 people while climbing and a few people passed me, and I never saw any traOic jams. Some people rested during their climbs, and there is a landing every floor (plus a door, of course) so plenty of space to rest out of the way if needed.
I have done the Hustle once before, in 2018, and did a shorter stair climb in Germany many years ago. These races hurt but are a lot of fun. After 20 flights, your quads start yelling, and at the end many people have sore throats from intense breathing. I certainly did. I am not an expert in any sense of the word, but I have learned that speed requires going two steps at once and using one’s arms as much as possible. If you climb every stair, you cannot use your arms eOiciently to pull yourself up. This is because your arms help you ascend when you have one leg on a stair and the other leg in the air. If you climb on each stair, there is no time for your arms to do much. You can go much faster when climbing every other stair; when you do this, you can pull hard with both arms during the time when one leg is in the air. This helps with speed but requires more quad strength.
The Upper Valley does not have a lot of tall buildings, so I cannot say that I practiced very much for the Hancock climb. However, my building on the Dartmouth campus is four floors, and the past few months I ran from the basement to the top floor of the building whenever I felt I was sitting too long in my oOice (no comment on how often that occurred).
At the Hustle I managed to place 7 / 182 in my age group, so perhaps a lot of four-floor trips helped more than I thought. After the race, you take the elevator down. Thank goodness.
Stair climbs are a blast, and I would like to do the Empire State Building Run-Up at some point. There is another climb in Chicago called SkyRise Chicago that ascends the Sears Tower (which is now called the Willis Tower, but there is no way I am using that name).
SkyRise Chicago is 105 flights. I was happy to finish 94 flights this past weekend, and have fun climbing!