We just returned from a 4-day trip to Las Vegas, courtesy of our son Mark who went there to “Scale the Strat”. Mark is a stair racer, and the annual race up the Strat’s 108 floors is the Towerrunning USA Championship. As volunteers to assist the official timekeeper, June and I were at the top, watching all 600+ runners finish.

The Strat Tower from the outside (it’s the second tallest tower in the western hemisphere); June and I at the top of the stairwell, two steps before the finish (we look fresh because we didn’t run it!).

Mark finished second to his stair racing friend and World #1 stair climber Soh Wai Ching of Malaysia, whom we had met before.

I’ll never forget when Mark stopped by my timekeeper’s table several hours into the race. (People enter the stairwell individually 15 – 30 seconds apart, so the whole race takes well over four hours.) I congratulated him for finishing second. He corrected me: “I prefer ‘US National Champion.’” Recall he finished second to a guy from Malaysia, making Mark the first US finisher – hence, US Champion. Pretty cool.

Here’s part of a news report:

Soh Wai Ching, 28, of Malaysia, took 6 minutes and 45.6 seconds to win Scale the Strat on Sunday. He also won in 2022 with a time of 6:57...

The female winner, Maria Elisa Lopez from Mexico, beat longtime U.S. number one and former world number one Cindy Harris, by a second.

This race was also the Towerrunning USA Championship race, so the top male and female U.S. runners are recognized as national champions, Harris and Mark Ewell. – Marvin Clemons, Las Vegas Review-Journal, February 26, 2023

Mark turns 50 next week. As another of his stair-racing friends told me, “Mark gets older, and he keeps getting faster.”

But it’s not by accident. He trains daily. At least once a week he runs the Manitou Incline, a “hike” on railroad ties, 2,744 steps, with a 2,000-foot elevation gain in less than one mile. Another day he trains for an hour in a stairwell in downtown Colorado Springs. We’re proud of him!

Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. (1 Corinthians 9.24, 25, NLT)

Do not waste time arguing over godless ideas… Instead, train yourself to be godly. Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come. (1 Timothy 4.7, 8, NLT)

For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. (1 Corinthians 4.20, ESV)