Mark Bourne blasted up 88 floors of Melbourne's Eureka Tower at 6.45am, reaching the top while most of us were still in bed.

The athletic feat saw the 34-year-old win the Eureka Climb vertical race competition - his seventh title in a row.

"It feels great," he said.

"I do a number of stair climbs around the world, but this one is one of the first I did, so to keep the winning streak alive is great.

"I've very happy to win again."

Bourne, a veteran climber from Canberra, reached the last step in eight minutes and 10 seconds - a bit slower than his fastest time in 2013 of seven minutes and 34 seconds.

"Today was not my fastest time. I found it a little bit hard," he said.

Bourne is number two in the Vertical World Circuit rankings and travels all year racing up some of the world's most iconic buildings.

He's won the famous Empire State Building event in New York and was on the podium in Paris after being the third man on top of the Eiffel Tower.

Melbourne's Eureka Climb event is in its 10th year. The time trials run until 1.30pm on Sunday and see hundreds of competitors race to the top, including firefighters and police officers in an emergency services challenge.

The fastest woman in Sunday's competition was Alice McNamara, from Wangaratta, who reached the top in 10 minutes and 15 seconds, just 0.8 seconds faster than competitor Meg Reeves from Orange.

"It was pretty gruelling, especially the last 20 floors, so I'm stoked to just hang on to it," defending champ McNamara said.

Like Bourne, it was also her seventh time winning the race, but not in a row.

McNamara had missed competing one year, but she had a pretty good excuse: training commitments for the Olympic rowing team.

"Eureka Climb is very iconic Melbourne," McNamara said.

"It's great to come here and then look up at the building later and know you've climbed all the way to the top."

With Eamonn Tiernan