Final Boston Marathon finisher crosses the line after 20 hours. Not a hobby jogger!

Hmmm...not sure how I feel about this. Great accomplishment for him and for charity but at the same time, I feel bad for the volunteers that had to stay out there so long.

Sounds like the volunteers knew what they were facing in terms of time. This guy's determination is pretty powerful.

Strength, courage, and hope.

Besides garnering attention for himself, how does this move anything forward?

I'm really at a loss to understand why some feel the marathon validates them in some way.

Anyone who is dealing with a desease or disability doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. A foot race is minor compared to what they deal with everyday.

What does taking a whole day to do something that should take 3 or 4 hours tops prove? By that measure, people taking 20 years to finish high school would be rated a deity,

Think this guy has some Khardashian in him.

Would have accomplished every bit as much by running a marathon on the local high school track. And wouldn't have inconvenienced anybody by doing it there. Publicity ho.

It proves that he is still able to travel 26 miles even though he is suffering a disease that is destroying his muscles (you use those to move your body around) - what part of that doesn't make sense to you? Maybe he's doing this for HIM, and people realized it's incredible and followed his progress. He did it to prove to himself that he's still got it some fraction of 'it.'

?????? wrote:

Besides garnering attention for himself, how does this move anything forward?

I'm really at a loss to understand why some feel the marathon validates them in some way.

Anyone who is dealing with a desease or disability doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. A foot race is minor compared to what they deal with everyday.

What does taking a whole day to do something that should take 3 or 4 hours tops prove? By that measure, people taking 20 years to finish high school would be rated a deity,

Think this guy has some Khardashian in him.

Don't need the pub wrote:

Publicity ho.

^this^3

What does 26 miles have to do with it? Oh yes, that's right, he'll get more attention this way.

Him. Not his desease. Not others who suffer from deseases. He wanted to be on the news and suck in people like you.....to talk about him.

Agree. A road mile would have been another option. Maybe ask the 5th Ave Mile folks to help him bring awareness to his cause. A marathon is excessive.

??????? wrote:

What does 26 miles have to do with it? Oh yes, that's right, he'll get more attention this way.

Him. Not his desease. Not others who suffer from deseases. He wanted to be on the news and suck in people like you.....to talk about him.

Did any of you losers even read the story?

""Today we conquer the impossible, today more than ever everything is possible," Melamed tweeted out on Tuesday morning. "Thanks to all."

Melamed hasn't let his muscular dystrophy stop him from completing five marathons. The athlete races for charity and to educate and inspire Venezuelan youth. He's also a university professor and motivational speaker."

Of course he did it for the publicity. He's trying to draw attention to his cause and hopefully improve awareness. He's also an inspiration to others suffering from MD as well as other debilitating diseases.

Did he bonk? can't tell.

How big was the gap between the final finisher and the 2nd to last finisher?

"Volunteers...go home, get some sleep, come back in 12 hours for the final walker"

Some of you people really are heartless. To most this is considered motivational and courageous, but to some of you it\'s seen as self centered and arrogant. I would love to see one of you that doesn\'t consider this courageous do what this man did with the ailment that he has.

It's not that we're heartless. It's that it's illogical what this person does to raise awareness. Why marathons? Maybe the BAA will set a time-limit to avoid this next year.

Don't need the pub wrote:

Would have accomplished every bit as much by running a marathon on the local high school track. And wouldn't have inconvenienced anybody by doing it there. Publicity ho.

No offense but... no of course I mean to offend. He may have wanted what we all want when we race, a community to compete with. If it makes him happy and eases some suffering then I am happy for him.

I am sure that all of your races are on local high school tracks at midnight because you would not want any attention.

The responses to this thread are disgusting.

The man did something incredible. Stow the contempt and vitriol for 30 seconds and think about what it means to cover 26.2 miles when every step is a struggle.

Some of these responses are illuminating--especially the one where the poster doesn't know how to spell disease.

I can only assume that most of the idiotic posts here are coming from high school and college-aged kids with little life experience--the ones that don't understand that all of life doesn't revolve around what you accomplished at your conference meet. Those experiences will help shape what you will be, but beating your rival at a meet that few people care about will mean nothing.

Someday you guys will get older, and you'll realize there is a bigger picture. It's one that revolves around your health, family, and friends. You'll start to see that you can actually help people, and then you'll realize what this guy is doing.

All done. You can now go back to beating Jimmy Smith at the Podunk Conference Meet where the center of your universe revolves.

??????? wrote:

What does 26 miles have to do with it? Oh yes, that's right, he'll get more attention this way.

Him. Not his desease. Not others who suffer from deseases. He wanted to be on the news and suck in people like you.....to talk about him.

So why do you enter races and not just do a time trial on your own?

Heartless People Suck wrote:

Some of you people really are heartless. To most this is considered motivational and courageous, but to some of you it's seen as self centered and arrogant. I would love to see one of you that doesn't consider this courageous do what this man did with the ailment that he has.

Not heartless. Liberals who will never give a dime to charities, and who deep down know their going to hell even though they don't believe in it. It's stories like these that touch on this somewhere in the subconscious, and their reaction is to tear it to shreds.