Runner’s body gives out; crawls to finish line of Austin Marathon

The Austin Marathon was the scene of extraordinary determination and bravery as a Kenyan woman, leading the race with three miles remaining, fell to the ground and began crawling her way to the finish line.

Hyvon Ngetich was leading the elite women’s division of the Austin Marathon with three miles remaining when her body, like so many other runners before her, gave out from pure exhaustion. However, despite Hyvon’s physical breakdown, she was determined to cross the finish line.

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Race volunteers rushed to help her, trying to lift her into a wheelchair but Hyvon refused, and with the finish line only a few hundred yards away, dropped to her knees and began crawling on her hands and knees to her final goal. Had she accepted the help from the race volunteers, she would have been disqualified.

Hyvon Ngetich finished the Austin Marathon in third place and told Fox 7 Austin after the race: “Running … you always have to keep going and going.”

Ngetich’s performance inspired the Austin Marathon race director, John Conley, so much that he bumped up her prize money for her heroic efforts.

Via CBS News:

"Afterwards, Austin Marathon race director John Conley said to her, “You ran the bravest race and crawled the bravest crawl I have ever seen in my life. You have earned much honor, and I am going to adjust your prize money, so you get the same prize money you would have gotten if you were second.”"

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