The 44th Empire State Building Run-Up takes place tomorrow night. Here’s a look at the women on the start list.
Cindy Harris (USA)
Cindy Harris won her first ESBRU title back in 1998, and has won four more titles in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2021. Incredibly, this will be her 24th appearance at the ESBRU!
Harris has only raced once since she won the ESBRU last year. In January, she maintained her annual tradition of winning Bop to the Top in her hometown of Indianapolis (she’s won the event an unbelievable 26 times), beating ESBRU challengers Jill Paha and Debbie Officer. Then she disappeared.
The 2020 US stairclimbing champion set her ESBRU personal best of 12:45 back in 2001. Her winning time last year was a far more pedestrian 14:01. Without any sense of race form, it’s anyone’s guess what sort of shape she’ll be in on Thursday night.
Her rivals weren’t far off her in 2021, and she’s going to have to put in a serious performance to secure her sixth title and prevent a brand new ESBRU champ. But count this phenom out at your peril.
Shari Klarfeld (USA)
A road runner who competes at 5km and 10km, Shari Klarfeld is the least experienced tower runner on the list – but she’s our one to watch on Thursday. She typically does just one stair race a year – the Empire State Building Run-Up – and she does it well. Klarfeld was third at the ESBRU in 2015, 2018 and again in 2021.
Back in June, Klarfeld took top spot at the 2,226-step One World Trade Center, finishing ahead of three of the women that will be joining her in the lobby later this week, including close rival Maria Elisa Lopez Pimentel.
Her personal best time at the Empire State Building is 13.43. If she runs another sub 14-minute time on Thursday night then expect to see her back on the podium.
If she gets out in front early, sets the pace and avoids any roadblocks in the stairwell then we think this could be the year she wins.
Maria Elisa Lopez Pimentel (Mexico)
Lopez Pimentel was second last year, finishing just 11 seconds behind Harris. She’s had a stellar year since that race, picking up wins and podium spots in Mexico City, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles and Seattle.
Those last two wins at US Bank Tower in LA and the Space Needle in Seattle were less than a week ago, so we know she’s in fantastic shape.
Her ESBRU PB is the 14:05 she set in 2019, which earned her fifth. A sub 14-minute finish will almost certainly win this year’s ESBRU, and we reckon Lopez Pimentel has that time in her. The only question is will Harris, Klarfeld or someone else be able to manage it too? Excited to find out.
Kamila Chomanicova (Slovakia)
Chomanicova is back for another crack at the ESBRU after travel restrictions halted her plans last year. She debuted in 2019 where she finished 11th in 15:22. So far this year she’s clocked up several sprint wins in Europe and will be heading to New York in solid shape, far more seasoned than she was three years ago.
If the ESBRU was quarter the distance, we’d put our money on Slovakian short-climb specialist Chomanicova coming out on top. But it’s not, and by her own admission she isn’t yet best suited to the longer climbs. There’s a dearth of tall tower races in Europe and many of the women on the start line will have spent the year racing at multiple 1,000+ step buildings, so taking all of that into account we think Chomanicova will be hard pushed to make it onto the podium.
A 15:22 finish at last year’s event would have earned her fifth overall. We think she might go faster than that this year and fingers crossed we’ll see her dip under the 15-minute mark to finish in the top five.
Jill Paha (USA)
With her win at Scale the Strat this year, Paha became the USA Stairclimbing champion. She followed that up with wins at Big Climb Seattle and Big Climb Minneapolis. A solid fourth place at One World Trade Center and second at Penn 1 in New York in June followed.
All that suggests there’s a strong ESBRU performance in the offing. We think the podium might be out of reach this year, but expect Paha to be challenging for a place in the top five.
Rosalyn Russell (USA)
After finishing fourth at last year’s ESBRU in a time of 15:18, Russell followed up with a second place finish at the USA Stairclimbing championship race at Scale the Strat in February this year. She was just four seconds slower than champion Jill Paha. Russell was then third at One World Trade Center in June, finishing behind ESBRU rivals Shari Klarfeld and Maria Elisa Lopez Pimentel.
Russell is perennially in good shape, so expect another strong performance from her this year. A sub 15-minute run could well be on the cards, so she’ll will be looking to lock in that fourth place again, while having one eye on the podium.
Verity Rees (UK)
Rees has been living in the US for years now, but she grew up in St. Albans, UK so we’re reclaiming her as our own.
She’s been super active on the scene this year, taking podium spots and a win in the UK, Germany and across the States.
This will be her third ESBRU outing and she’ll be looking to chop some time off her 15:28 PB.
Meg Santana (USA)
Santanna was third at the ESBRU in 2017 with a 13.51 finishing time. But her times at the following three events were considerably slower (14.50, 14.22 and 15:29 respectively), so who knows which Santanna will show up. With Santanna absent from the tower running scene this year, it’s impossible to say how she might fare on Thursday night.
That 15:29 last year was good enough for fifth, but we don’t think that sort of time will see her into the top five this year. If she pulls out another sub 14-minute finish like she did in 2017, she could win the thing. Santanna’s an unknown entity this year and it’s all the more exciting for it.
Tricia O’Hara (USA)
A well-known stair climber in the USA, O’Hara has been racing the ESBRU for a number of years and clocked her personal best 15.36 at the event in 2019. She came close to it last year, too, with a 15:39 finish that earned her sixth.
O’Hara was third at the USA Stairclimbing Championship back in February, and third a month later at Big Climb Seattle. A strong athlete, but unlikely to feature among the top finishers this time around.
Debbie Officer (USA)
Officer already has a tower run victory under her belt this year. She took a commanding win at the 1,197-step 555 California St. building in San Francisco back in April. She also finished second at Big Climb Atlanta and has been in the top five at some stacked US races in 2022.
She was eighth at last year’s ESBRU, finishing in 17:03. She’ll need a massive improvement on the PB 16.04 she clocked at the event in 2019 if she’s to be in among the top finishers.
Tower Running UK 
