The “elite women’s” division of the 2023 Empire State Building Run-Up begins their grueling journey on Oct. 4, 2023.
Photo by Nolan Deja
For a group of people who were about to run up the Empire State Building‘s 1,576 stairs at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night, they shared an overwhelming amount of cheer and energy.
Gathered in a large room off the main hallway, athletes were checking into the world’s most iconic tower run: The Empire State Building Run-UP.
Tower running is a competitive sport that takes place in tall buildings all over the world. The endeavors of the sport are exactly as they sound. Participants run up towers, racing to the finish line at the top.
Grueling and intense in its nature, the culture among the competitors is entirely contradictory.
As they checked in for their bibs the elite runners shared hugs and laughs, excited to catch up with each other inside the famous landmark.
“It’s very friendly, really good camaraderie. All the people that compete regularly know each other quite well, it’s nice,” said David Harris, a regular participant who travels much of the year to compete in events on the Towerrunning Tour.
The Empire State Building wasn’t built with a stairway race in mind: the flights are narrow and seemingly unfriendly to a mass of people. These logistics only allow for 150 runners, so spots are coveted and hard to come by. Non-elite runners enter a raffle to try and win a place on the starting line.
Shelly Ann, local to NYC, has had the Run-UP on her bucket list of things to conquer before she turned 50.
“Three years I’ve been trying to get in, in the lottery. And this year finally I got in,” she said with a face of relief, only a few months away from her 50th birthday.
The starting line, in the middle of an Empire State Building hallway, was only a few yards away from a sharp turn into the stairwell which was outfitted with padding for the occasion. The “elite men” started first at 8 p.m., followed…
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