Race to the Top of the Empire State Building

Thursday, 07 February 2013 | by Pat's Picks

Last night, I conquered a landmark.

My main goal during yesterday’s media “race” at the annual Empire State Buidling Run-Up was to simply to finish with a respectable time. And I think I accomplished that by making it to the top in 21 minutes and 51 seconds.  Winner Mark Bourne of Australia did it in 10 minutes and 12 seconds.  Thomas Dold, a professional stair climber from Germany who took last year’s race, wasn’t able to defend his title because of an injury.

It’s 1576 stairs to the 86th floor observation deck.  With me throughout the climb was my NY1 colleague Jamie Shupak, whose (much) shorter legs meant she was taking two strides for every one double-stair step I took.







I’ve got to say, the toughest part of the race was just breathing.  The air in the stairwells is dusty and dry and a lot of us were coughing at the finish line.  My legs, however, are fine and it was all over pretty quickly.

At the top I had a chance to catch up with Kelly Ripa (video below), who started just ahead of me and kept up a good pace to finish in 18 minutes and 16 seconds.  I had a hunch she got off to a good start and I didn’t catch up.







All in all, a fun night—thanks to the New York Road Runners for organizing and raising funds for the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.