Chongqing - Let’s get one thing straight: ordinary marathons are for people who love flat ground. But in this mountain city of Chongqing, the streets are already a workout, so why not skip the middleman and race up an actual skyscraper? That’s exactly what 600 brave, slightly insane runners did on October 17 at the 2026 Raffles City Chongqing Vertical Challenge. 

This year, the race threw away its training wheels. Instead of one tower, the new Twin Tower Connect format sent runners up both Raffles City towers, stacking up a monumental 109 floors and 600 meters of vertical ascent. For those scoring at home, that’s 3,073 steps. Count them again: 3,073. No elevator, no escalator, no “I’ll just take the stairs instead” — because this is the stairs. The finish line was set on Tower A’s helipad at 350 meters, a spot normally reserved for helicopters and elite birds. Now it belongs to exhausted humans with jelly legs and enormous pride.

For the rational-minded — sorry, the time-efficient — there was the classic Tower C route: a humble 42 floors, 250 meters, and 1,175 steps. Still enough to trigger a serious cardiovascular debate, but at least you can finish before your leg muscles file for divorce. The reward? At the top, the Sky Deck treats you to a jaw-dropping 270-degree view of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers meeting below. Meanwhile, the helipad finishers earned a 360-degree postcard of the whole city, drenched in sunset gold.

Speaking of connection, the race invited four “Connection Leaders” whose life paths couldn’t be more different: Ryan Chen, the internet viral star with over 8 million followers; Ran Guanghui, the legendary “Bang-Bang” porter and 2025 “Touching Chongqing” honoree; Chen Min, the trailblazing climber who conquered all seven summits and completed the “7+1+2” world-nine-extremes challenge; and Mou Xianfeng, a Chongqing taxi driver with a permanent seat in the city’s pulse. An influencer, a porter, a mountain explorer, and a "Yellow Ferrari" driver — together on a staircase, all moving upward, all sharing the same burning lungs. If that isn’t “connection,” nothing is.