Jennie Coughlin had a wonderful article in the New York Times yesterday, describing those who were the last ones to cross the finish line at the New York marathon. The difference between those who finish first, and those who finish last, Coughlin noted, can be more than 13 hours.
She also described Danielle Grimley, 41, from Colorado, who finished in 10 hours 32 minutes and 7 seconds on crutches and with a bandage wrapped around her thigh.
As Coughlin writes, “Ms. Grimley has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects connective tissues around joints, and she sometimes has knee issues. On Sunday morning, she said, her knees felt fine and she hoped to finish the race in 5 hours. But in Mile 6, her hip started bothering her. When she reached Mile 17, she said, her hip ‘went out,’ and she ended up in a medical tent at East 80th Street and First Avenue. She asked the medic if he had crutches for her, and he said, ‘Hell, yeah.’
As she approached the finish line in Central Park, word reached the medics stationed there someone was finishing on crutches. They met her with a wheelchair.”
Apparently, starting in 2016, there are also a group of people who wait for these final finishers with cowbells and glow sticks.
And as Coughlin wrote, “As Ms. Grimley slowly hopped from Mile 17 through to the finish, she said, she thought about how it would feel if she went back to Colorado without the finisher medal. What would her co-workers say? She kept repeating to herself: ‘I came too far to quit.’”
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