If you think running up 86 flights of stairs is pure hell, you’re absolutely right. However, every year, thousands apply to run up the 1,576  stairs of the Empire State Building in a lung-searing, leg-dragging race called the Empire State Building Run-Up.

I competed last year in the media heat. Upon hitting the stairs that are dispersed on a 65% incline (For reference, Filbert Street in San Francisco sits on a 31.5% grade), I learned that the stairwell opens only twice a year — once for the annual fire drill and once for the race itself. This means that within minutes of being in that arid dusty air, it inevitably feels like you’ve chain-smoked two packs of cigarettes, no matter how robust your lungs are.

The professional tower climbers (yes, such athletes exist) cross the finish line somewhere in the 10-to-12-minute range. But, simply reaching the observation deck of one of New York’s most iconic buildings, sans elevator, is a feat in itself.

Now imagine taking on those stairs with no legs. That’s what Rudy Garcia-Tolson, 29, did Wednesday night, and in the process, he became the first double-leg amputee to cross the infamous finish line. The Paralympic swimmer, who now resides in Brooklyn, ran up the building in a speedy 29 minutes.

 

 

Garcia-Tolson ran the race to help raise money for the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), which gifts racing chairs and prosthetic legs to those who have physical disabilities so they can lead healthy and active lifestyles.

 

 

“I find it of utmost importance to be a role model for . . . kids so they can see what’s possible. It’s OK to be different,” he told am New York before the race. “We all have the potential to follow our dreams and do what we want.”

Garcia-Tolson came into this world with a rare birth defect that caused his legs to be webbed at the knees. By the age of five, he had already undergone 15 corrective surgeries. However, they didn’t give him the mobility he wanted, so he elected to have both legs amputated above the knee.

Fast forward to age 15, and he was winning a gold medal in the Paralympic Games, and well on his way to breaking world records in swimming.

He plans on competing in Tokyo in 2020, and in the meantime, signing up for whatever challenges cross his path, like the ESB Run-Up.

Who can’t applaud his effort to drift into the unknown, test his body, stretch his mind and reach for the stars? Or, in this case, reach for the antenna.