← Pablo's VO2 Max Challenge
Reg. V1 June 2026 Complete
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§ 00Result

Version 1
June 2026

More than 40 friends, lower-stakes prizes, and a format we needed to prove. We ranked everyone by age- and sex-adjusted percentile and the bottom third paid for Michelin-star dinners for the top two thirds.

Losing didn't cost you a car. It cost you the bill for a very good meal you were sitting right in the middle of. That turned out to be plenty of motivation.

Run record
Stakes
$145 ea.
Paid by
Bottom ⅓
Winning %ile
97.0
Prize
Birdsong
The format works.
One number · one lab · bottom third pays
§ 01Standings

Final board

Ranked on age- and sex-adjusted VO2 max percentile from the June final test. Same lab, same protocol, witnessed.
1st place97.0 %ile
Mahmoud
Al-Madi

Won Version 1 with a 97th-percentile result.

LinkedIn ↗
2nd place95.4 %ile
Jason
Steinberg

Took second place with a 95.4-percentile result.

LinkedIn ↗
3rd place90.3 %ile
Taira
Fujioka

Took third place with a 90.3-percentile result.

LinkedIn ↗
Rest of the field
Positions 4 and down stay private
Only the podium is published. Everyone else got their own numbers and nobody else's — which is the deal that makes people willing to be tested at all.
Bottom third
Picked up the check
The bottom third split the bill for the top two thirds — $145 a head. They were at the table eating the same menu, just paying for everyone else's.
§ 02The prize

Dinner at Birdsong

One Michelin star in SoMa, San Francisco — a live-fire tasting menu built on Pacific Northwest ingredients. Long, expensive, and exactly the kind of thing you don't want to watch other people eat.

No cars, no watches. V1 was about checking the format worked before raising the stakes, so the prizes were Michelin-star dinners.

Birdsong ↗
The cost of losing
$145
per head,
bottom third only

The winners ate at Michelin-star dinners, including Birdsong, and the bottom third covered the bill. Everyone knew the stakes going in, which is exactly why the last month of training got serious.

§ 03Rules as run
R1
Friends only
Invitation at my discretion. No professional athletes. V2 widens this to people a friend vouches for.
R2
One number
VO2 max percentile adjusted for age and sex, so the whole field competes on one scale.
R3
One test
Same protocol at the same lab for everyone, so every number is comparable. Health clearance first, no exceptions.
R4
Skill, not chance
The result was decided by measured performance. No draws, no judgment calls at the finish.
§ 04Carried into V2
Kept
One number, one lab, health clearance, and a finish nobody argues about.
Raised
Michelin-star dinners motivated more than 40 friends. A car motivates a hundred — and makes the prize pool worth recruiting for.
Fixed
Losing no longer means writing a cheque. V2's downside is a wooden spoon, and the dinner format is the fallback if the field comes in short.
V2 entries open · January 2027
Beat 97.0

That is the bar V1 set. This time the top of the board takes a car instead of a table.

Go to V2
Pablo's VO2 Max Challenge · V1 · June 2026 · complete Built with Proliferate