Kristen Bartecchi Rozell, a 45-year-old wildlife biologist in Fairbanks, was at work a couple of months ago when she received a puzzling email that piqued her curiosity enough to give it a read.
The email informed Rozell that her application to be included in a lottery for entry into the annual Empire State Building Run-Up had been received. This was notable because Rozell had not submitted an application.
"What's this race?' '' she thought. "I didn't sign up for any race.''
Scrolling the email, Rozell came across the digital application completed in her name. In the space where the applicant was asked to detail why race organizers should select them from thousands of applicants was an explanation that the race needed an endurance athlete from Alaska. The explanation also noted the lottery registration form on the race website did not even list Alaska on its pull-down menu of states. This last piece of information cracked the puzzle for Rozell.
"That sounds like Ned,'' she thought.
Ned Rozell is Kristin's husband, and like her, a runner, skier and veteran of Fairbanks' Equinox Marathon. He ran the Brooklyn Marathon in 2014 while visiting his sister, brother-in-law and nephew in that borough, and since then race organizers had contacted him regularly about upcoming running events in New York – "those emails you get for the rest of your life,'' Ned noted.
When Ned received an email about the Run-Up application process, he thought of Kristen. She loves to run uphill and isn't crazy about running downhill. Besides, she could visit his side of the family.
Still, filling out an application in his wife's name was simply a lark.
"I thought, 'We'll throw Kristen's name in the hat,' '' Ned recalled. "It won't happen. The odds are astronomical. I sent that off never expecting to hear from them ever again.''
In any event, the couple shared a laugh about the whole thing, and then didn't give it much thought. Well, until they were vacationing a few weeks ago with their 9-year-old daughter, Anna, in Costa Rica, and Kristen received another email. This one reported her lottery application had been accepted.
And that's how Kristen – after using Alaska Airlines frequent flier miles to get a plane ticket – ended up Wednesday night in the stairwell of the Empire State Building, marching up 1,576 steps from ground level to the 86th floor, making continuous spiraling turns to the right.
Wearing a Running Club North singlet that declared the group's location in Fairbanks, Alaska, she competed with more than 200 other athletes who hustled up in heats in which runners' start times were staggered every five seconds.
Kristen finished 47th out of 210 finishers, eighth among the 75 women's competitors and third in her age group. She clocked 16 minutes, 23 seconds, which met her prediction that she could finish in less than 17 minutes.
Kristen estimated her Run-Up time by extrapolating from a few training sessions marching up the stairwell of the eight-story Geophysical Institute at UAF, where Ned works as a science writer whose column appears regularly in Alaska Dispatch News. She also did some Internet research on tower running – yeah, it's a thing – and determined that skipping every other stair and using the railing for support and sling-shot leverage was the way to go.
"I did what I tried to do, skip every other stair, and used pretty much (my right) arm on the railing and the other arm on my (left) leg,'' Kristen said. "I power-hiked it, and I was able to maintain a pace.''
Her time was only about four minutes slower than women's winner Suzy Walsham of Singapore (12:19), who won the Run-Up for the fourth straight time and seventh time overall.
As you might imagine, grinding up 86 stories is somewhat taxing.
"When you see the 56th floor and know there's 30 more, you think, 'Oh, wow,' '' Kristen said.
The race is literally not a run in the park.
"It's really hot and stuffy, and real dusty in there,'' Kristen reported the day after the race. "I'm still coughing dust up.''
But she had fun, enjoyed a race that struck Ned as "crazy and unique,'' and is savoring some time with Ned's side of the family.
Of course, the story might not be quite complete. There is the matter of payback. There is the possibility that Ned could find himself one day reading a curious email that piques his curiosity. Just spit-balling here, but he might open it to discover that he is entered in a race for which he did not submit an application.
Kristen hears tell about a lovely Ironman-length triathlon in Norway. It starts with a swim in which racers unload off a car ferry and into a fjord, continues with a bike leg through mountains and closes with a marathon run that ends with the climb of a mountain.
Huh.
This column is the opinion of reporter Doyle Woody. Reach him at dwoody@alaskadispatch.com, check out his blog at adn.com/hockeyblog and follow him on Twitter at @JaromirBlagr