Sunday’s New York City Marathon came to a crashing halt for one runner who was in the lead all the way until the last five miles when he suddenly collapsed from the strain.
The weather for the race turned unseasonably warm Sunday, but at first, that did not seem to bother leader Daniel Do Nascimento, a runner from Brazil, who kicked off the race leaping far into the lead.
After the first half hour of the race, do Nascimento was so far in the lead no other runner could even be seen around him. He was even outrunning the race’s pace car.
Do Nascimento kept this pace up, seemingly without effort for mile after mile. He was still so far ahead that no other runner could be seen around him sixteen miles into the run.
Indeed, he was so far ahead that he could take time out to go to the bathroom. His pitstop took 18 seconds, and when he returned to the race, he was still in the lead, Outkick noted.
But this triumphant performance soon began looking shaky. After passing the 18-mile mark with four bridges behind him, it began to look like Do Nascimento’s pace was starting to slow down. He also began to look stressed.
By the 21-mile marker, it all came crashing down as the runner started walking instead of running. Then his legs began to buckle, and he crashed to the blacktop.
Medics got to him almost immediately, and he was able to get back up. But his race was over only five miles shy of the finish line.
The Brazilian runner was crushing this race until he wasn’t. He ran the first half in 1:01:22 and was on pace to beat the course record of 2:05:06, but he collapsed with only five miles to go, and it wasn’t to be.
When it was all over, it was Kenya’s race, instead of Brazil’s, as Kenyan runner Evans Chebet won the Marathon men’s race with a time of 2:08:41. Kenya took the women’s category, too, as Sharon Lokedi of Kenya won for the women with a 2:23:23.
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