A Staircase Race to Remember

As Fire Capt. Jim Morgan raced with the pack up the narrow stairwell to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building on Tuesday, he flashed back to other stifling staircases and another race.

“I was just trying to think of the guys you knew personally, from the youngest guy to the most experienced--the chief of the department we lost,” he said of Sept. 11. “I thought, don’t give up. These guys didn’t quit. They were still running in the building trying to recover civilians.”

For 24 years, the Empire State Building Run-Up has been a quirky sporting event, a mad dash up 1,576 steps to the observation deck, attracting marathoners, mountain runners and people who just like to climb stairs.

“It’s not only wacky, it’s tough,” said Richard Finn, a spokesman for the New York Road Runners Club, organizers of the event.

But on its silver anniversary, the annual race emerged as something more poignant: a proud tribute to the victims--including 343 firefighters--of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

After the twin 110-story towers collapsed, the Empire State Building, with 102 floors, became New York’s tallest skyscraper.

As runners gathered in the lobby of the structure on Fifth Avenue in mid-Manhattan, the theme was red, white and blue.

Some contestants wore shirts decorated with American flags. Others carried the patriotic motif to shorts and leotards.

The Road Runners Club said many of the more than 180 people who signed up noted on their applications that Sept. 11 was a motivating factor.

They said that running was a way of showing support for the city and its heroes.

The club said some people, especially members of a competing team of police officers and firefighters, added an additional thought on the form: They were running to honor friends and loved ones who perished at the trade center site.

“This year, we ran with heavy hearts for obvious reasons,” said Ken Bohan, also a member of the fire department’s stair-climbing team.

The fact that the race went on despite the tragedy of Sept. 11 “offered the world more confidence,” said Paul Crake, 25, an accountant from Australia who won the men’s race in 9 minutes and 40 seconds.

Kerstin Harbich, 27, of Garmisch, Germany, finished first among the women with a time of 12 minutes and 46 seconds. “I feel good,” she said after the climb.

“It’s just a sign New York is returning to some type of normalcy,” Crake added. It was his fourth straight victory.

Bohan, 39, who works in a firehouse in Brooklyn and who finished first among firefighters and police officers, said he thought the event gave the runners a chance to focus on something positive.

“In some small way, I think we did that,” he said. “People showed up. Nobody was afraid of anything, and people came from all over the world to run in this race.”

Bohan received a check for $2,500 from FleetBoston Financial, sponsors of the race. He said the money would go to a fund established for the children of a firefighter he worked with who was killed when the twin towers collapsed.

He and Morgan, 43, stressed that five months later, firefighters at the site are still trying to recover the bodies of all their comrades.

“There are guys digging as we speak,” Bohan said. “Hopefully, they will be finding some of the brothers today.”

Despite the sad memories of the trade center, most of the climbers saw the event as a fun run in the middle of winter.

Evelyn Davis, 64, who wore a red leotard, said about a month before the competition she started running up the stairs in her apartment building in Cliffside Park, N.J.--three sets of 30 flights, three times a week. “I also started weight training, so that helps a little bit, I think.”

Verena Hoeppli, 43, said she began climbing stairs in her Manhattan high-rise apartment building every day as part of her fitness routine.

“Then I decided, why not go up the entire distance. In my building there are 40 floors. I do it three times a day--40 floors.”

As for finally crossing the finish line, she said: “By the 50th floor, you are hoping it will be over.”

Ruth Fairbrother, 59, an accountant and a former long-distance runner, said she didn’t train specially for the event.

“My husband said, ‘Don’t bother. Either you’re fit or you’re not fit. If you’re fit, you can do it.”’