Posted: February 7, 2006

Running: Austrian Sets Record At Empire State Run-Up

From David Monti

© 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

NEW YORK (07-Feb) -- Andrea Mayr, a 26 year-old Austrian, broke her own women's event record here today at the 29th Annual Bank of America Empire State Building Run-Up, winning the race for the third consecutive time.

Mayr climbed the 1576 steps from the building's lobby to the 86th floor observation deck in 11 minutes and 23 seconds. At last year's race she became the first woman to break 12 minutes, despite running with a cast on her right forearm, and broke that mark today by 28 seconds. She also beat second place Nada Pauer, also of Austria, by nearly a minute and a half.

"I love this race and I love New York," said Mayr after today's race, organized by the New York Road Runners.

Mayr is a versatile athlete. She is the Austrian record holder in the 3000m steeplechase (9:56.78), a mark she set last year. At last summer's IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Helsinki, Mayr competed in the steeplechase, finishing 11th in her heat.

In the men's division, the order of finish was reversed from last year. Thomas Dold of Germany, who lunged for the finish line only to be outleaned by Rudolf Reitberger of Austria in 2005, came out on top this year, defeating Reitberger 10:19 to 10:36.

"The Empire State Building is famous all over the world and the Empire State Building Run-Up is one of the greatest events a tower runner can win," said Dold, 21.

Neither man came close to Paul Crake's event record of 9:33 set in 2003. Crake, an Australian mountain runner, won the race five consecutive times from 1999 through 2003.

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