Dear
Friends,
Good morning. Why would anyone run
up the 1,576 steps of the Empire State Building in New York City? To find out,
I called Bill Griffin of Sellersville after I spied a picture of him running up
the 86 story skyscraper in the New York Times.
It turned out that he, his brother Pat, and friend
Tom Hamburger from Perkasie finished 47th, 84th and 81st,
respectively. It was the 28th annual Empire State Building Run Up
(ESBRU) race and 137 participated. About 50 of the competitors were women,
Griffin guessed. Believe it or not, no one died!
The local trio’s times were
impressive: Bill (age 39), Pat (44), and Tom (45) finished in 15 minutes, 12
seconds; 17: 56; and 17: 25, respectively. The winner was Rudolf Reitberger,
33, of Austria in 10 minutes, 24 seconds.
Bill Griffin, Hamburger, and I had
lunch to review the details. “I passed number 86 (worn by Piero Dettin from
Italy) as the photographer shot that picture,” Griffin explained. “I was tired
of looking at number 86’s rear end!”
“It was the first time for all three
of us,” Hamburger began. “The race is an invitational. If they invite us back,
we’ll go.”
How did the three train for the
event? “It’s a secret,” Griffin replied, “But we found the tallest building in
Bethlehem. The security guard let us run up the 21 stories. He took the
elevator and met us at the top. We all rode down together and then ran up to
the top again…four times. It was the equivalent of the Empire State Building.”
Hamburger finished his training by running 120 loops of his stairs at home.
“Bill’s an A10 War Hog pilot with the Air National
Guard at Willow Grove,” Hamburger continued. “He’s one of their top guys.”
Flying is commonplace for the Griffins. A retired airforce pilot, Tom Griffin
is currently a pilot for Federal Express. Hamburger is a builder of residential
homes and additions, plus light commercial construction.
“I heard about the Empire State Building race at
work,” Griffin added. “My workouts were getting stale. I needed a different
kind of goal and went to the (ESBRU) website. Tom had just put an addition on
our house so I called him.”
“I’m glad you did,” Hamburger replied. “Now, we’re
looking for our next event…something unique.”
“One thing we learned was when you have a goal, you
work a lot harder,” Griffin quipped. Both are triatheletes, competing in local
competitions. A typical event is a half-mile swim, 14 miles on a bike and a
five-mile run.
Griffin and Hamburger talked about the ESBRU. “The
prize for us was the view of the world from the top of the Empire State
Building,” they exclaimed. Race day was clear as a bell with temperatures in
the mid 30’s. “The drive into the city was a piece of cake,” Griffin said. “It
was a gorgeous day. We walked around Time Square and after the race, we went to
Ground Zero.”
“When we go to New York City and look at the Empire
State Building, we can say, “We ran up that building,” Hamburger said.
Griffin laughed about the photo of him in the New
York Times. “I was happy to see my face in the Times,” he concluded, “And I’m
not a felon!”
Would I run up the Empire State Building? Not on
your life. Besides, I have a great excuse…fear of heights.
Sincerely,
Charles Meredith