Firefighters Raise Money to Beat Cancer in Wash. Stair Climb
Lewiston Tribune, Idaho
March 16—A paramedic with the Pullman Fire Department, carrying all his equipment, climbed 69 flights of stairs in 10 minutes and 55 seconds last weekend and helped fund cancer research at the same time.
Steve Potratz-Lee, 31, edged out 1,854 other firefighters from departments throughout the world Sunday to take his—and the Pullman Fire Department's—first title at the 27th annual Scott Firefighter Stairclimb in Seattle.
The event is a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and requires firefighters to raise as much money as they can for cancer research. Each firefighter has to raise at least $300 to participate.
Potratz-Lee, a Moscow native, beat out second place by three seconds and third place by four seconds.
"At the top I felt pretty claustrophobic," he said. "Once your breathing gets compromised and you feel like you are sucking as much air through your mask as you can. I really felt that urge to pull (my facemask) off, but luckily I didn't. I knew I was close."
He said the weight on his shoulders and the heat from wearing all his gear started to get to him during the last 15 flights of stairs.
"Anybody who does endurance sports knows you have to embrace the pain," he said. "You have to push those boundaries to where it hurts."
Climbing 69 flights of stairs inside Seattle's Columbia Tower is something Potratz-Lee has proven he can do for the past three years, but climbing to the top of the list of competitors has proven more difficult.
Last year he took second in the competition. In 2016, he came in third place. In 2015, he finished tenth.
With massive skyscrapers like Columbia Tower missing from the Moscow and Pullman skylines, training for the stairclimb has proven difficult.
"A couple of times I went up to Webster Hall and went up and down a bunch of times," he said.
However, he believes his roots played a role in his climb to the title.
Potratz-Lee, a former University of Idaho athlete, ran cross country and competed in the steeplechase at UI.
He said the steeplechase prepared him because it forced him to run long distances while saving energy to make a series of hurdles near the end of the race.
A former Lewiston firefighter, he said he trains on a cow trail that runs along the ridge to the top of the Lewiston Grade. He said it's something he learned while at his old department.
"That's the longest continuous climb we can get in the wintertime," he said.
Other than that, he said he uses stair-stepper machines during workouts.
Potratz-Lee said he's happy he won, but he's also happy he got to take a jab at cancer while doing it.
He said he and two other Pullman firefighters who competed—Robby Krieger and Ryan Palmberg—were able to raise about $4,500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. That was possible thanks to a donation by South Fork Public House, a "Fill the Boot" fundraiser at Dissmore's IGA and private donations.
"People were eager to support that because cancer affects everybody," Potratz-Lee said.
He said he will defend his title next year because now he would like to set the record for repeat victories—six straight years, set by firefighter Andrew Drobeck of Missoula, Mont.
"The public expects when they call 911, they want the A-team to show up; they want the guys that can get the job done," he said. "I don't know that climbing 69 flights of stairs in a row is the best measure of what it takes to do this job, but fitness in general is a big part of what we do."
