.gif)
More than 300 runners skipped the Empire State Building elevator Tuesday and took the stairs instead -- all 1,576 steps.
The annual race is the Olympics of stair climbing, with athletes and enthusiastic amateurs dashing from the marble-clad lobby to the 86th floor observation deck of the iconic 1931 skyscraper, New York's tallest.
Germany's Thomas Dold -- who is also world champion at running backwards -- won for the fourth consecutive year. His time of 10.07 minutes was about 10 times slower than the high-speed elevators which whoosh tourists to the spectacular rooftop.
In the women's category, Suzy Walsham from Australia won for the third time, finishing in 13.27 minutes, despite cutting open her lip during jostling on the ground floor.
Runners burst from the final flight of stairs to discover the famous view of Manhattan obscured by a snow storm. But they were not complaining.
Dold, a 24-year-old economics student from Stuttgart who calls stair running a "really cool sport," collapsed joyfully onto the snowy platform.
The annual event combines a unique challenge with one of the world's most glamorous buildings.
King Kong climbed to the top in the 1933 movie, zany plans were laid, then abandoned, for an airship to dock at the spire, and for the last 32 years eccentric athletes have ascended using nothing more than their legs.
The most dangerous part of the sport takes place before a single stair has been climbed.
To get into the stairwell dozens of runners must initially race through a door, all of them trying to be first to start climbing.
That was when Walsham, sporting a bright green running vest, got caught in the crush and was slammed face first into a marble wall, before falling to the ground. Incredibly, she still managed to get up and start racing, stumbling through the women winner's tape minutes later.
Inside the stairwell, painted battleship grey and windowless, the biggest obstacles for speedy runners are the slower competitors, who barely leave room for overtaking.
Scott McTaggart, from Australia, said the race is not just about running, but "staying on your feet, getting quickly into the stairwell, and then finding ways to overtake."
McTaggart, 31, saw "a friend who was practically on the floor and almost trampled. I picked him up."
The race, organized by the New York Road Runners, also features a colorful cast of amateurs.
Electrician Victor Hodler, 57, said he trained by walking the 47 stories of his Manhattan office building. His ancestors were Swiss, he said, and "since I don't have mountains to climb, I do stairs."
Debbie Blankfort, 48, comes from a northern New York state town where the tallest building measures just 21 storeys. "I trained by going up and down five times."
The oldest participant, 75-year-old French immigrant Ginette Bedard, wore blue eye shade and mascara and had her hair done up in a tuft for the occasion.
"I'm so happy I'm alive. I made it!" she laughed, blowing a kiss at a reporter.
"I wanted to show you could do it, no matter how old you are. Life's not sitting around on a couch and watching TV. You have to earn it."
She added with a cheeky wink: "And you know? I'm never going to get fat."
