Firefighter's final dash forever honored at 23rd Tunnel to Towers race

Runners streamed out of the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel and into a steady Manhattan drizzle Sunday, thousands heading to the finish line of a race inspired by a firefighter's desperate last dash to the Twin Towers 23 years ago.

They were retracing the path taken by Stephen Siller, an FDNY firefighter who eventually made it to the towers before they collapsed. Siller was never seen again.

The 23rd annual Tunnel to Towers race in his memory Sunday included firefighters in helmets and turnout gear, an army of West Point cadets and runners with a Siller-like resilience.

Among those who took on the 5-kilometer race was Ed Murphy, of East Setauket, a registered nurse in the psychiatric unit at Stony Brook University Hospital until he retired four years ago. Murphy, 69, has run three marathons and many half marathons. Two years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Chemotherapy treatment followed before he had surgery in March 2023. Eight months later, Murphy ran a 5k.

On Saturday, he was prepping for the towers run.

"I’m up for the challenge," Murphy told Newsday. "This is therapeutic for me."

After he crossed the finish line Sunday, joined by his surgical and medical oncologists at Stony Brook Cancer Center, Murphy said the crowds cheering as they ran by gave him a boost.

"I feel great," he said with a smile. "It was a great race."

The event raises funds for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which was created in tribute to Siller's actions on Sept. 11, 2001. The foundation operates programs to benefit military veterans and first responders and their families.

Siller had just finished a shift at Brooklyn’s Squad 1 in Park Slope when he heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. He started driving toward Manhattan to help, but when he found the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, now the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, closed to traffic, he left his truck and ran toward the scene. Siller is believed to have been in the south tower when it collapsed.

Two blocks north of where Siller lost his life, Stephen Valyou, 48, waited Sunday at West and Murray streets for his daughter to come through the finish line after he completed the race.

Valyou was shot by a sniper while deployed in the Army as an explosive ordinance disposal specialist in Iraq. He made his way along the course Sunday using a wheelchair, his ninth time. In 2016 he moved into an accessible "smart" house built for him in upstate Millerton by the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

"Back then there were just a few," he said of the homes. "Now it’s been more than a thousand."

This year, the foundation will donate about 200 smart houses to disabled vets, a spokesman for the nonprofit said.

FDNY firefighters and others from departments across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut raced in full turnout gear — jackets, pants, helmets, most in sneakers but a few in their heavy work boots.

A wave of West Point cadets — about 1,500 of them according to one plebe — ran the race clad in shorts and black T-shirts with "Duty, Honor, Country" on the front.

Felipe Vasquez, 42, and his son, Gabriel, 14, came from McAllen, Texas, to run. Vasquez is a Marine Corps vet who fought in Iraq. Father and son participated as members of Team Semper Fi. Gabriel finished first in his "corral," well ahead of the others; his father crossed the finish line a few places behind him.

Murphy's race partners Sunday, doctors and cancer specialists at Stony Brook,  Georgios Georgakis and Julie Anne Gimmell, finished with their patient. The three said they planned to race again together.

Georgakis said once the race began, Murphy took an early lead.

"He was running like the wind." Georgakis said proudly, adding that he took part "for Mr. Murphy."