Running Harvard Stadium

My friend Jeff Bussgang from Flybridge gave me a new experience today – we ran Harvard Stadium. To be precise, we ran half of Harvard Stadium, or 19 of the 38 sections. We started at one end (section 38), ran up the stairs, and then walked down. We shifted over a section and repeated until we were done.

It took 20 minutes. It was a beautiful morning – about 40 degrees – and the sun coming up over the edge of Harvard Stadium was stunning. The stadium was empty except for a few other crazy people running the stairs. We stretched for five minutes, Jeff gave me some hints, and we were off.

He finished each segment in about half the time it took me. He used to do this in college when he rowed crew at Harvard so he had a great rhythm. I tried a few different approaches but each time seemed to fade about half way to the top. By the tenth segment I was walking the last five to ten stairs each time, totally winded.

I expected my legs to be more tired but the breathing was the harder problem. I’d go anaerobic almost immediately. My heart rate never got about 165 but for some reason the effort of pulling myself up the stairs overtaxed by breathing. Before I realized it we were finished with half the stadium and my legs were shaking. That was plenty for a first timer like me.

RunKeeper clocked it at 0.62 miles and Fitbit was at 1.20 miles. The GPS data is totally fubared so I’ll call it a mile. Fitbit showed 67 flights of stairs up which is about the same as I cover in a 90 minute trail run and seems about right since each segment was about three flights of stairs.

Thirty minutes later I have a nice burn in my legs and I feel the soft fatigue that comes after a solid workout. I’ll definitely be running more stadiums in my future. Thanks Jeff!