New York City Travel Expert

The Empire State building run up is an annual event that is found in 1978 by the New York Road Runners Club.

Each year, hundred invited runners from all over the world come to New York to take part in this event. During this race, participants run up 86 floors and 1.576 steps before they reach the ‘Observatory deck’ on the top floor. The vertical distance from lobby to the 86th floor is about 320 m.

Only invited people can join this race and the participants will be selected, based on athletic ability and background. They have to be familiar with “Tower running”. This is a sport which involves running up tall structures such as

The Empire State building

skyscrapers. The record of the Empire State Building Run Up is on Paul Crake’s name, who is a Australian professional cyclist. He did the job in 9 minutes and 33 seconds in 2003. Suzy Walsham completed the woman’s race in 2007 in a record time of 13 minutes and 12 seconds. Normally, visitors of the Empire State Building reach the top floor within 1 minute by elevator.

During the last edition of this event, 249 participants raced up the 86 floors. People of all ages were standing at the starting line, ranking from to 75 years old. There is no entrance price for this event, only that invited people can participate. Since the start of the race in 1978, 3.662 were finishers.