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NEW YORK (AP) Thousands of people participated Sunday in a race named for the heroics of a firefighter who was killed on Sept. 11 after he ran through a tunnel to get to the World Trade Center on his day off. The Tunnel to Towers Run honored Stephen Siller, a father of five who heard about the 2001 terror attack while he was going to play golf with his brothers in Brooklyn. The annual 3.1-mile run follows the path he took, running through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel with 75 pounds of gear on his back to save lives at the twin towers. The tunnel, the longest continuous underwater vehicular tunnel in North America, connects south Brooklyn and Manhattan's Wall Street area, near the trade center complex. Photos of the 343 firefighters killed on Sept. 11 were displayed Sunday along the race route. Firefighters from every state showed up, many running in full gear. Family members of Sept. 11 victims also participated. "When you go through the tunnel and you see the pictures of all the guys," said runner LuAnne Campanella, whose firefighter brother-in-law was killed on Sept. 11, "it's very emotional." Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was in office on the day of the terrorist attack, witnessed the run, which raised money for a children's foundation named for the 34-year-old Siller. "This is a beautiful thing," Giuliani said, "because they get to recreate what he did and remember how brave he was running here."
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