The stairs number 1,628. The elderly and fragile pets need you to beat them all

It started out with a question: “Are you tough enough?”

Tough and fit enough to run up and down 3,256 steps — while helping to raise money to rehome elderly and medically fragile dogs and cats.

Brian Nelson and his wife, Kelly, are hoping many will try.

Kindred Souls Foundation, a charity they founded in 2005, is hosting a race they call “Unleashed” that pits participants against the steep stairs of Stadium Bowl. Sunday, Aug. 6, will be the event’s sixth year.

“It’s intimate,” Nelson said, because everyone running can see their competition, they’re sharing the struggle.

And that’s the beauty of it, he says.

“We meet on common ground and we share a common experience,” Nelson says in a video previewing the event. “These stairs don’t care who we are, they offer the same challenge to all of us.”

Nelson was first introduced to the idea of running the stairs of stadium Bowl in 2008. He had just returned from a tour in Afghanistan with the Army.

“Hey bro, you’ve gotta run these stairs,” a military recruiter at Stadium High School told Nelson.

There are 1,628 of them at the Stadium Bowl and they whooped Nelson’s butt.

“No matter what your mile time is, you’re a mouth breather on those stairs,” he said.

Then in 2011, he decided to turn his favorite workout into the timed competition that it is today. Two laps, 3,256 steps and participants starting at 5-second intervals.

But it’s more than that.

It’s also the biggest fundraiser for the charity that Nelson and his wife, Kelly, the executive director, lead. The charity has rehomed over 1,500 dogs and cats, most of them elderly or medically fragile.

“Kindred Souls is the outward expression of Kelly’s interior,” Nelson said.

Unleashed is his, “It’s what I try to be.”

Last year, 500 people showed up, helping to raise $43,000.

For now, that money finances care for the animals Kindred Souls places in temporary foster homes before adoption.

The ultimate goal is bigger, though.

“Our vision is to pay for operating costs of a future, holistic care, no-kill, sanctuary,” Nelson said.

This story was originally published July 28, 2017 at 3:54 PM with the headline "The stairs number 1,628. The elderly and fragile pets need you to beat them all."