NEW YORK -- Gasping marathon runners sprinted up 1,575 steps to the 86th floor of the Empire State Building Thursday, with the winner of the annual race setting a record time.
Veteran marathoner Pete Squires, 30, Yonkers, won with a record-breaking time of 10:59. Nina Kuscsik, 42, Huntington Station, finished first among the women runners in 14:44. She won the race among women runners in 1979 and 1980.
Thirty men and eight women, elbowing each other up the narrow staircase from the lobby to the 86th-floor observatory, competed in the fourth annual 'Run-Up' sponsored by the New York Road Runners Club.
As first prize, Squires and Ms. Kuscsik received giant, stuffed replicas of King Kong, the movie-hero ape who climbed the 102-story building while swatting at airplanes and clutching a young woman to his mammoth chest.
The other contestants, whose ages ranged from 16 to 58, were presented with miniature statues of the famed building to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Most were experienced marathon runners.
'It's the hardest thing I've ever done,' said Squires, panting after the race. 'My lungs are burning. It was so hard to get air. But it's a good challenge.'
The only training Squires did for the race was his weekly 120 miles of jogging, he said, and he ate nothing before the race.
'This race is just for fun,' confided Squires, a sporting goods consultant.
Ms. Kuscsik, who is a hospital counselor when she is not competing, said she had practiced for the race by sprinting up the steps in her apartment building.
'And I work in a hospital, running up and down stairs all day,' she added.
The oldest runner, George Spitz, 58, Manhattan, declared: 'It was really tough.' He had trained by running up stairs, but during the race found he still had to use the stair rail 'a little.' Spitz for the second year was the last man to finish the grueling race, coming in with a time of 20:14.
Debbie Perry, 22, a student in Boston, said she had snuck into skyscrapers in Boston to train for the run. But the preparation was not enough -- Miss Perry suffered stomach cramps on the 68th floor and had to stop a moment, before finally finishing last among the women in 18:40.
The runners said it takes more strength to run up stairs than to run a normal race, and there is never a chance to catch one's breath.
'You have to use your legs much more and keep a steady concentration,' said Squires.
The winner of the first 'Run Up' in 1978 created a sensation when it was discovered he was a New York City firefighter on a disability pension.
