It takes just a few seconds to get from the base of the Stratosphere Tower to the observation deck some 1,000 feet above using high-speed elevators. It takes just a little more than seven minutes to climb to the top using the stairs—for the kind of athlete who regularly participates in stair-climbing events. For everyone else, it was somewhere around 10 minutes.

It’s a pretty impressive feat when you think about it: climbing almost 100 feet per minute for 10 or 12 minutes when there is a perfectly servicable elevator just a few feet away. But the reason people were running up the stairs was more than just to show that they could do it—and maybe make us couch potatoes feel a little worse about ourselves—it was to raise money for the American Lung Association.

There were some 400 climbers for the first day of the event, and on the second day the top 50 climbers from the previous day ran again.

When everything was done, the event raised more than $64,000 that will fund lung health research, education and advocacy in Southern Nevada.

By Casino Connection Staff