Australian wins fifth Empire State Building Run-Up

Australian Suzy Walsham won her fifth Empire State Building Run-Up in New York City on Wednesday evening. Walshman is the world’s top female skyscraper runner right now. In 2013 she won six of the seven Vertical World Circuit races to be named champion.

It took Walsham 11:57 to climb the Empire State Building‘s 1,576 steps from lobby to the 103 floor.

The 40-year-old ran one of the fastest women’s times in the race’s 37-year history, although the race was paused midway because of bad weather in New York City. The women’s record is 11:23.

Thorbjørn Ludvigsen won the men’s race in a time of 10:06.

The Vertical World Challenge is a circuit of  skyscraper races around the world. New York was the first of eight events. The others will be held in, Taipei,  Paris, Benidorm, Beijing, Sao Paolo, Shanghai and Hong Kong.