“I told him, ‘Give me three years, I’ll beat you within three years,’” Soh told FMT from a hotel room in Chicago.

A relatively niche sport, Soh said there were few resources available online when he began his career as a tower runner.

“So, I had to design my own training programme … I trained in the apartments back in Selayang. I got access to the 43-floor building, and I trained from the seventh floor to the 42nd floor,” the Universiti Malaya sports science graduate said.

“Three years later, I beat (Lobodzinski) in Dubai. It was right before the pandemic, in February 2020.”

More recently, Soh was declared the winner of the 2021 Empire State Building Run-Up after scaling the 86-storey New York mega structure with 1,576 steps in exactly 10 minutes, 46 seconds.

He is now also the first Asian winner of the long-running event, and is officially the second-best tower runner in the world.

This is not Soh’s first rodeo in the tower running scene though. Last year, he became the Guinness World Record holder for the Greatest Vertical Height Stair Climbing in One Hour (Male) with a distance of 1.295 km.

Soh, who is currently heading off to Dubai to prepare for other upcoming tower running events, tells FMT that his love for the sport began by chance back in 2017.

“Almost every year, KL Tower holds the KL Tower International Towerthon Challenge. A friend of mine was confident he could beat me in this tower running event, so he challenged me to join.”

Soh trained hard and despite the odds, he not only beat his friend by over a good minute, but was also declared the fastest Malaysian participant that year.

Intrigued to check out the tower running scene further, Soh used his prize money to travel and participate in international events.

What makes the sport unique, the Selayang-born athlete said, is that unlike traditional track or road races, participants start at staggered intervals, so keeping track of who is in the lead is nearly impossible.

“It’s like a time trial, so you have to give your best at all times to push yourself further and further until you cross the finish line. This is what I love about the sport, because it’s not about beating others, but beating yourself.

“You have to literally give your best, because that aligns with what life is like. We have to give our best in everything we venture into, this is the value I learned from tower running.”

Small factors too, make a big difference in the sport, beyond the number of floors or flights one has to climb.

The height of each step, inconsistencies in the number of steps per flight, and a lack of continuous handrails around corners can change the landscape of a race, with Taipei 101’s 22cm steps one of the biggest reasons the building is feared by tower runners.

With events beginning to restart around the world, Soh plans to regain his world record which was broken when Japan’s Ryoji Watanabe climbed 1.425 km at the Tokyo Skytree.

“I also plan on attempting some Guinness World Records in Dubai. I’m still trying my best to get permission from Emaar Properties, which is the developer for the Burj Khalifa, for me to attempt a world record in their building.”

Funnily enough, Soh was less a star athlete and more a chess whiz in secondary school, representing his school in competitions. Later, his sister encouraged him to take up running, which proved useful for tower running.

On days he is not participating in tower runs, Soh practises running up flights of stairs, up to 400 floors in a single exercise session.

He said that he eats a balanced diet to stay in top shape, and loads up on antioxidant-rich food. During the lockdowns when training outside was impossible, he stayed active indoors.

“I kept training, stepping on benches for 30 to 45 minutes non-stop. I just had to keep my heart pumping, you know?” he said, adding that he planned to grab the World Number One position in tower running in the next year or so.

Additionally, he hoped to inspire more Malaysians to take up tower running and hopefully, draw government attention and support for the sport.

In 2019, he founded the Malaysia Towerruning Association, the first local association for the sport, of which he is the vice-president. His mentor, Ravinder Singh is president.

Soh pointed out that with the number of skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur alone, the future of tower running looks bright for Malaysia.

It is a goal that Soh takes so seriously, he even joked that the epithet on his tombstone should read, “Father of Tower Running”.

He hopes that when Malaysia hosts the SEA Games again, the committee will consider including tower running, which will shine the spotlight on the sport internationally.

“If they do that, I’ll definitely do my best to bring back the gold medal for the country,” Soh said.

So, what’s next? “I hope that one day, tower running will be included in the Olympics,” he said.

In the meantime, Soh encouraged people to use the stairs more often, as it provided a low impact and high efficiency workout that helped strengthen the lower body and burn more than double the calories as compared to normal walking.