Albany Native Tears It Up

One of our own just dashed up 86 floors to the very tip top of one of the most famous buildings in the world - the Empire State Building! Miss Carrie Barown, 30 years young, invited PilotGirl to join her and document the run this morning.

206 hyper-athletic girls and guys of all ages from all over the world gathered in the lobby of the Empire State Building. Dozens of different languages and dialects exchanged back and forth inside the hall where the race numbers and pins were given out. Runners from New Zealand, Germany, Japan and even 76 year old Ginette Bidard from France anxiously prepped for the climb of their lives.

Carrie admitted her nerves were giving her butterflies. I tried to relax her with a short message. Carrie is a gym teacher at Albany High and in better form and shape than anyone I know. There would be no reason why she wouldn't lead the pack up the stairwell.

The boys and girls were divided into 2 groups. The girls took off 5 minutes ahead of the boys. Carrie had a strategy, having been training for the last month in the Agency towers at the Empire State Concourse. During her lunch breaks she would run a total of 20 flights over and over and over again until 86 floors was reached.

After a lifetime of announcements, a loud fog horn finally went off. A scramble of girls squeezed into a stuffy dreary stairwell, feet pounding the concrete stairs, exasperated breathing, the leaders pulling ahead in no time.

At floor 20, dozens of girls broke for a seconds worth of gulping water. Then they were off again. At floor 43 Carrie yelled "We are half way there!" and all the girls behind her breathed a sigh of relief.

It wasn't until floor 80 that she checked her watch. She was beating her record of coming in under 20 minutes but better than that she might finish under 18 minutes. She pumped her legs into high gear and pushed the pain away.

Sure enough, she rounded the top of the Empire State Building in under 18 minutes at 17:52. Amazing! She placed 13th place in her age category and 142 over all. She couldn't have been happier! Dozens of photos online at Flickr.com.