It's a Long Way to the Top, at Least in This Race

Think you’re in good shape? How does an 86-floor, 1,576-stair climb sound? Not going to try it any time soon? Well, yesterday (Feb. 2) more than 300 athletes raced to the top of New York’s Empire State Building, starting in the lobby and ending on the 86th floor Observation Deck. It’s a fifth of a mile, or 1,050 feet (although by the time you reach the top, it probably feels like a lot more.)
We’ll just stay put, thanks.
The race, which has been held 33 times since 1978, drew participants from 19 states and 17 countries. The overall winner was professional stair-racer Thomas Dold (yes, that's really what he does), with a time of 10:16--he took the top honors for the fifth year in a row. The fastest woman, Melissa Moon, hails from New Zealand, and is a 40-year-old mountain runner (You go girl!) Her time: 13:13. (The fastest the race has ever been run is 9:23.)
Nether of the top two women had ever climbed the Empire State Building before. The second-place woman was New York’s Gretchen Hurlbutt (let’s hear it for hometown girls!), who had never done any kind of stair race before.
And yes, it is a real thing, and that is a real term. Stair races are held all over the world, and are often used to raise money for charities. (One is coming up in Chicago at the Presidential Towers at the end of March, for example.)
But still, we’ll stick to the Stairmaster.

Get Revved Up for the Weekend's Half-Marathon

Those of us who find it tiring to even watch the New York City marathon, or walk to a good vantage point, may take heart in this Sunday’s Half-Marathon, (August 16, starting at 7:00 am).
Beginning at Central Park’s East Drive, the course makes a clockwise loop around the park, continues to the south end of the park, and veers onto Seventh Avenue. Runners then head south to Times Square and along the Hudson River waterfront to lower Manhattan. The race, sponsored by The New York Road Runners Club, ends on West Street near Rector Street and Battery Park.
If watching the runners isn’t enough for you, entertainment will be provided throughout the course. It might be worth joining the crowd at Times Square just to say you were part of the Times Square Sing-Along—-lyrics to classic songs will be projected on an enormous video screen, while Broadway performers lead the festivities. Both runners and viewers are welcome to join in, but if the runners have enough breath to sing ”Hello, Dolly," they aren’t doing their job.
Other entertainment activities include Samba New York! at 42nd Street and the West Side Highway; The Creamsicles, a band that will play funk, surf rock and gypsy punk (No, we don’t know what that means either); and the "Corridor of Sound,” five DJ Stations near the finish along the West Side Highway, with--wait for it--a variety of city sounds. Yes, you could probably step outside and hear the same thing, but what fun would that be?