Champions Return to the Top of the City
Dold and Walsham continue winning ways at 31st annual NYRR Empire State Building Run-Up
New York, February 5, 2008—Thomas Dold and Suzy Walsham don’t just keep winning—they keep getting faster. Dold, 23, from Stuttgart, Germany, and Walsham, 34, an Australian who lives in Singapore, both improved on their 2007 performances as they successfully defended their titles in the 2008 NYRR Empire State Building Run-Up.
Walsham, a world-class middle-distance runner who has run the metric equivalent of a 4:26 mile, finished the 1,576 steps (86 floors) in 12 minutes, 44 seconds—28 seconds faster than her winning time from 2007—despite a calf-muscle injury that had limited her regular running to almost zero. “But I did a stair workout on Friday and it was okay, so I decided to give it a try,” she said. “It felt fine today.” Rickey Gates of Boulder, CO, finished second among men in 10:16; four-time winner Cindy Moll-Harris of Indianapolis was the second woman in 13:33.
Dold ran the fastest of his four Run-Ups to become the fifth male three-peater in the race’s 31-year history. His time of 10 minutes, 8 seconds was a big improvement on his 10:25 winning time in 2007. “I ran 10:08—it is so cool!” Dold enthused in his idiosyncratic English. “I am now second-fastest only to the huge Paul Crake!”
Crake, of Australia, holds the course record at 9:33, which he ran in 2003 to win his fifth consecutive Run-Up. Andrea Mayr of Austria set the women’s record of 11:23 in 2006.
A record 215 runners (156 men, 59 women) finished today’s race, up from last year’s total of 202. The youngest finishers were Shaun Stephens-Whale of Canada, 18 (11th in an excellent 12:17) and Anna Janicka of Poland, 20 (39th in 20:43). Philip Florie, 68, who is a business manager in the Empire State Building, was the oldest man in the race; his time was 21:55. The race’s oldest finisher by five years was Ginette Bedard of Howard Beach, Queens, who ran 22:12. She holds several age-group road-race world records, including a 3:46:34 marathon at the age of 72. “It was not hard—I liked it,” she exclaimed to a crowd of reporters. “I’m no different than last year. If I can do this, you can do it!”
This year’s Run-Up included a Brokers’ Division, contested by four-person teams representing several top New York real-estate firms. Seven teams from four companies competed; the winners were from CB Richard Ellis, who put some vertical real estate between themselves and teams from Cushman & Wakefield, Jones Lang LaSalle, Studley, and Newmark Knight Frank.
A remarkable comeback was continued by Nina Kuscsik, 69, who had completed a three-peat of her own here more than a quarter-century ago. She won the race in 1979, 1980, and 1981, with a best time of 14:46, during a career that also included two New York City Marathon victories in 1972 and 1973. In 2006, at age 67, Kuscsik decided to return to the climb. “I started all over again—I ran 26-something. But I beat that by a minute and a half last year. This year I did about the same,” she said, looking remarkably unaffected by her 86-story ascent. Told that she probably won an age-group award, she just laughed. “Do they even have age-groups that high? Well, it’s fun to get a little faster again.”
[Photos] [Video]
Thomas Dold (10:08) of Germany and Suzy Walsham (12:44) of Singapore repeated as the NYRR Empire State Building Run-Up champions.
