Two Local Men Achieve Tall Feat

Paul McNamara and Richard Myers hardly noticed the bitter cold and snow Tuesday morning as they strode out of the stairwell and onto the observation deck atop the Empire State Building.

In fact, after running up 86 flights of stairs – 1,576 steps in all – the dramatic drop in temperature was welcomed.

“It was like jumping into a refrigerator, but it was a Godsend,” Myers said. “Our legs were screaming bloody murder at that point, so the cold felt good.”

Any feelings of discomfort didn’t last long, however, particularly once the two runners crossed the finish line to complete the New York Road Runners’ 32nd annual Empire State Building Run-Up.

They were elated, they said, because they’d accomplished every one of the goals for the event they’d set for themselves.

They wanted to run to the top without stopping, and they did. They wanted to finish between 17-18 minutes, and they clocked in at 17:23 – good for 16th place among the 70 competitors in the amateur class. They did not want to use the handrails for support or to propel themselves, and they didn’t touch them once.

Most important of all, they wanted to finish together, and they did – with an arm around the other’s shoulder.

“We were just delighted to be able to run it from start to finish,” McNamara said, noting that the top amateur runner finished in 13:31. “We both feel great. Neither of us is hurt or tired. To finish … it’s just an unbelievable feeling.”

Thomas Dold of Germany and Suzy Walsham of Singapore, both competing in the open class, were repeat winners.

Earning his fourth consecutive victory, the 41-year-old Dold raced up the 86 flights in 10:07, beating his previous best by one second. The course record is 9:33, set by Paul Crake in 2003.

Walsham, a native of Australia, marked her third consecutive win, climbing the 1,576 steps in 13 minutes, 27 seconds.

McNamara, of Bristol, Tenn., who teaches physical education and coaches cross country and soccer at Sullins Academy in Bristol, Va., first learned about the event at the Empire State Building last summer when he visited the Manhattan landmark with his parents and brother.

Once McNamara made up his mind in early fall to try it, he enlisted Myers, a plumbing contractor who lives in Piney Flats, Tenn. The two men didn’t know each other all that well –
though their 4-year-old daughters, Claire and Skye, are good friends in the Sullins’ pre-school class – but McNamara knew that Myers, a one-time competitive body-builder, liked to run road races.

The men trained by running the stairwell at the 10-story Holiday Inn in Bristol, Va., at least four days a week. They’d run a circuit, stretch as they rode down in the elevator, then run the circuit again. They’d do that 16 times, to nearly double the numbers of flights they faced on Tuesday.

They quickly realized that their level of conditioning was better than many of the other amateur competitors.

“Some people had already started walking by floor 15, and others were pulling themselves up by the handrails,” Myers said. “We were amazed.”

The two were tempted – momentarily, anyway – to do the same as they passed the 60th floor.

“We both hit the wall at that point,” McNamara said. “We started feeling it a lot, but we hung in there and shouted encouragement to each other.”

Myers added: “By floor 62, the body was trying to shut down, trying to make you stop. Your legs didn’t want to pick up for the next step.

“But we kept thinking about the kids and kept pushing on. They got us through the last floors.”

The two men had dedicated their run to their daughters and the nearly 200 other students who attend Sullins Academy.

McNamara, 39, and Myers, 42, have always been physically active, and competing in this run was their way of demonstrating to the Sullins Academy kids that fitness is for life and that a person is never too old to take on a new challenge.

The kids were along for the run Tuesday morning in more than just spirit: The two men wore Sullins T-shirts that had been signed by every student and staff member at the school.

“Some day, I hope to get a call from one of my former students telling me he’s running up the Empire State Building,” McNamara said.

jcnockaert@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2572