NEW YORK—If you could, would you step up to the challenge of racing up 86 flights of stairs on a cold winter’s day? About 400 athletes from the U.S. and around the world have done it, racing up the 1,576 steps to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building at the 34th annual Empire State Building Run-Up event on Tuesday.
Defending champion Thomas Dold, 26, of Stuttgart, Germany, won the race in 10 minutes and 10 seconds, beating his previous year’s record by 6 seconds.
Australian Alice McNamara, 24, was the women’s overall winner, dashing up the stairs in 13 minutes and 3 seconds. A member of the Australian national rowing team, McNamara said Tuesday’s event was her second vertical race. She won her first at last year’s Eureka Tower race in Melbourne, Australia, and the prize was a ticket to New York.
A smiling Dold, pleased to beat his own record, says he is “fine and recovering from the race.” Dold is uncertain if he will return in 2012 to defend his title. Dold has won the race six years in a row.
To date, the fastest record is 9 minutes 33 seconds, set by Australian professional cyclist Paul Crake in 2003.
Others who stepped up to the challenge of the vertical running event shared their personal experiences.
Cil Shaw-Brewer, 50, New York resident, an attorney and full-time mother of two children said that three weeks of training was not enough. She recommended that anyone who has a chance to should participate in the event.
Frederick Eames, 62, a physician from Albany said, “It is good for me. I do it mostly for fun and for Team for Kids charity.” Eames stated that stairs running “is so much work. It is not fun at the time but afterward it is fun. This is because the main challenge in stairs running is trying to get enough oxygen into the lungs. The limiting factor is not leg strength but your breathing capacity.”
Suleiman Rifai, 50, of New York was the only blind participant in this year’s race.
When asked about how he felt about the race, Rifai said, “Doing the stairs is fast and intense. It is a real euphoric experience. It is a really amazing feat. I want to do better next time to challenge myself.” Rifai, who is a dancer and a psychotherapist at a homeless shelter, stated that he is a marathon runner and this is his second attempt at the Empire State Building Run-Up race.
The Empire State Building Run-Up race attracted participants from 14 states and 25 countries. Runners from other countries had equally exuberating experiences.
Henning Fels, a 33-year-old air traffic controller from Munich, Germany, said, “It is one of the races in the world that I want to make ever.” Invigorated and inspired by the event, Fels said he would be doing his training on the steps of the air traffic control tower at the Munich International Airport where he works.
Computer software engineer Yuki Negoro, 50, stated that the run up was tougher than he had expected, “I thought it is easier but it wasn’t easy, especially after the 10th floor; I couldn’t breathe.” Overall, it was an “exciting experience and I like to try next year.”
Alexis Thomas, 23, a student pilot from Lutterbach, France, said it was his first time and the experience left him panting for breath. Undeterred, he hopes to do better if he comes back next year.
For Yoshiko Jo, a 45-year-old college lecturer from Kobe, Japan, this was her first tower running event and the experience was special and intense. “It was really tough. I was so close to fainting. It was hard to breath. I thought I was going to see hell, but I didn’t,” she said, laughing aloud.
Thirty-one year old Ralf Hascher from Ulm, Germany, summed it up aptly by stating that it was a mental experience, “The race is actually in the head. … I try to have positive thoughts.”
The youngest male participant was Sam Kohn of New York, and the oldest male runner was 73-year-old Piero Dettin from Venice, Italy, while the oldest female was 77-year-old Ginette Bedard, from Howard Beach, New York.
Defending champion Thomas Dold, 26, of Stuttgart, Germany, won the race in 10 minutes and 10 seconds, beating his previous year’s record by 6 seconds.
Australian Alice McNamara, 24, was the women’s overall winner, dashing up the stairs in 13 minutes and 3 seconds. A member of the Australian national rowing team, McNamara said Tuesday’s event was her second vertical race. She won her first at last year’s Eureka Tower race in Melbourne, Australia, and the prize was a ticket to New York.
A smiling Dold, pleased to beat his own record, says he is “fine and recovering from the race.” Dold is uncertain if he will return in 2012 to defend his title. Dold has won the race six years in a row.
To date, the fastest record is 9 minutes 33 seconds, set by Australian professional cyclist Paul Crake in 2003.
Others who stepped up to the challenge of the vertical running event shared their personal experiences.
Cil Shaw-Brewer, 50, New York resident, an attorney and full-time mother of two children said that three weeks of training was not enough. She recommended that anyone who has a chance to should participate in the event.
Frederick Eames, 62, a physician from Albany said, “It is good for me. I do it mostly for fun and for Team for Kids charity.” Eames stated that stairs running “is so much work. It is not fun at the time but afterward it is fun. This is because the main challenge in stairs running is trying to get enough oxygen into the lungs. The limiting factor is not leg strength but your breathing capacity.”
Suleiman Rifai, 50, of New York was the only blind participant in this year’s race.
When asked about how he felt about the race, Rifai said, “Doing the stairs is fast and intense. It is a real euphoric experience. It is a really amazing feat. I want to do better next time to challenge myself.” Rifai, who is a dancer and a psychotherapist at a homeless shelter, stated that he is a marathon runner and this is his second attempt at the Empire State Building Run-Up race.
The Empire State Building Run-Up race attracted participants from 14 states and 25 countries. Runners from other countries had equally exuberating experiences.
Henning Fels, a 33-year-old air traffic controller from Munich, Germany, said, “It is one of the races in the world that I want to make ever.” Invigorated and inspired by the event, Fels said he would be doing his training on the steps of the air traffic control tower at the Munich International Airport where he works.
Computer software engineer Yuki Negoro, 50, stated that the run up was tougher than he had expected, “I thought it is easier but it wasn’t easy, especially after the 10th floor; I couldn’t breathe.” Overall, it was an “exciting experience and I like to try next year.”
Alexis Thomas, 23, a student pilot from Lutterbach, France, said it was his first time and the experience left him panting for breath. Undeterred, he hopes to do better if he comes back next year.
For Yoshiko Jo, a 45-year-old college lecturer from Kobe, Japan, this was her first tower running event and the experience was special and intense. “It was really tough. I was so close to fainting. It was hard to breath. I thought I was going to see hell, but I didn’t,” she said, laughing aloud.
Thirty-one year old Ralf Hascher from Ulm, Germany, summed it up aptly by stating that it was a mental experience, “The race is actually in the head. … I try to have positive thoughts.”
The youngest male participant was Sam Kohn of New York, and the oldest male runner was 73-year-old Piero Dettin from Venice, Italy, while the oldest female was 77-year-old Ginette Bedard, from Howard Beach, New York.
