Run-Up Champions Win Again—the Easy Way, and the Very Hard Way

Dold takes fourth title in a runaway; Walsham fights back—and back to the top

New York, February 3, 2009—The defending champions extended their winning streaks at the 32nd NYRR Empire State Building Run-Up today, but there the similarity ended. Thomas Dold, 24, of Germany ran unchallenged to the snowy 86th-floor observation deck and broke the tape in a time of 10:07, a single second faster than his 2008 winning time, for his fourth consecutive victory. He finished 22 seconds before second-place Marco De Gasperi, 31, of Italy, after having the stairwell to himself for all 1,576 steps; Rickey Gates, 27, of Colorado, took third. “This is such a special win for me,” said Dold, who is now one victory away from tying five-time winners Al Waquie (1983-87) and Paul Crake (1999-2003) for most Run-Up titles. “You have to train a lot to get a victory like this, and it gets harder every year—lots of guys want it.”

Two-time defending champion Suzy Walsham, 35, an Australian who lives in Singapore, was also a clear favorite. When the horn starting the women’s race sounded in the lobby, the group fought for position in their efforts to run freely into the stairwell. As the tightly bunched pack reached the door after a 20-yard sprint, Walsham was pushed hard to the side; she hit the marble doorway and fell full-length in the stairwell, badly bruising her face and left knee. Several runners inadvertently stepped on her. With the help of three of her competitors, she finally reached her feet. At that point, she was in about 20th position and in considerable pain, and the leaders were several floors above her.

“I didn’t come all this way to pull out,” Walsham thought, and started to run.

Passing other runners is much harder to do in a stairwell than on a road or a track. On the constant rightward-turning spiral, a faster runner must move out and expend considerable extra energy to go around a competitor, who has the inside position and a handrail to pull on. Walsham, despite her shock and injuries, managed to do this again and again, passing all the women ahead of her. After reaching the front, she pulled away to win by 13 seconds in 13:27; her toughness and determination can’t be expressed in minutes and seconds. She received medical attention and was then carried to the awards podium by Dold in time to receive her third championship trophy in three attempts.

Daniela Vassalli of Italy finished second in 13:40, and four-time champion Cindy Harris took third in 13:49. Masters (age 40+) titles went to Daniel Casper, 42, of Minnesota (12:22) and Harris, who is 40; other noteworthy age-group-winning performances were turned in by Henry Wigglesworth, 51, of Washington (12:36); Emmy Stocker, 50, of New York (17:07); Myron Baker, 60, of New York (16:14); Kumi Horiuchi, 71, of Colorado (23:43); and Piero Dettin, 71, of Italy (19:35).