Stepping Up to Towering Wins

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Los Angeles has a new power couple: Brian and Michelle Duff.

Each posted best times for their gender in the 23rd annual YMCA US Bank Tower Stair Climb held late last month. Both of their teams, under the sponsorship of downtown law firm Latham & Watkins, also took first place in their respective divisions.

For Brian Duff, 40, a Latham associate specializing in mergers and acquisitions, this was the eighth run up the 1,664 steps of the 72-story U.S. Bank Tower – the same building he works in. He completed his dash up more than 150 flights of steps in 10 minutes, 35 seconds – not quite as good as his time last year, but enough to take top honors, both individually and for his team, ironically named “The Escalators.”

But Michelle Duff’s time of 13 minutes, 17 seconds was more remarkable. Not only did it top the field of women stair climbers, it was the 41-year-old stay-at-home mom’s first competitive stair climb ever and she only completed two practice stair-climbing sessions beforehand.

Both Duffs are practiced runners – both ran competitively at Georgetown University, where they met more than 15 years ago. But Brian Duff said the key advice he gave his wife was to pace herself.

“You have to get to the point that the last 10 flights are just as solid as the 10 first flights, and that requires not going all out at the beginning,” he said.

He said the most surreal moment of this year’s race for him took place a couple of hours after he finished, when he returned to the 70th floor of the 1,018-foot tower to await his wife after she finished her climb.

“My kids and I took the elevator,” he said.

Animal Planet

When Zane Lamprey sees a problem, he goes after it. The same entrepreneurial instincts that have guided the TV host and beverage and apparel company owner are also helping him save local animals in need.

When Lamprey, 44, saw a squirrel struggling with an abscessed eye injury in his backyard last Christmas, he and his wife took it to the California Wildlife Center in Calabasas for emergency care.

“There are things I see in my periphery that I just can’t ignore,” Lamprey said.

At work, that kind of active observation has led to successful crowdfunding campaigns for a TV show called “Chug” through his production company InZane Entertainment – which got picked up by the National Geographic channel in 2014 – and recently, for an outdoor hoodie through his Adv3nture apparel company that raised more than $1 million on Kickstarter.

Back home, he’s adopted three Siamese kittens from a high-kill animal shelter in Downey. The trio needed medical attention and were likely to be euthanized.

“There’s never really time in your schedule to stop and help,” he said. “But when you do, you can sleep at night knowing you made a difference to someone.”

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