Crawling to end of the finish line: Overdone?

LetsPhoto wrote:

Why is a photographer even posting here anyway? Pics?

I've been photographing running events professionally since 2013. Here you go!

(Hey Brojos, if you want to get me media credentials to photograph any events for you in the northeast; let me know!)

ekw wrote:

This particular marine runner was the ONLY runner that I saw collapse who refused anyone's help. If he felt that he had to do it 100% himself in order to properly pay homage to his fellow marines, let him do that. It's up to him. To think that he somehow contrived the entire incident along with the media for his own gain is fair-fetched at best.

Well, I have to admit I got a call in the office yesterday from someone who thinks just that.

They want me to to an investigation. They basically thought the 1st half and 2nd half splits were too big and that someone else must have run the first half or he cut the course. The discrepancy in times was too great for them.

My thought process was, "That sounds like an epic blowup. If you were going to cheat and fake a finish to get publicity, why would you have someone run the first half super fast for you."

But it does take some decent running ability to run anm 82 minute first half so you don't normally see blowups like that.

Here is the video of the finish if you haven't seen it. Looks like it was taken by former Dartmouth star Dana Giordano who has a 4:08 1500 pb.

?

He was dramatizing this for sure.

Looks like WWE out there

His split 35 km to 40 km is 12:17 mile pace and 40 km to finish is 24:27 mile pace, so it looks like he was in serious difficulty the last mile or two.

Apparently by his marathonphoto pics, he made it to the post race fun:

https://www.marathonfoto.com/Proofs?PIN=0RF049&lastName=HERNDON

I've joked with folks (especially in this viral celebrity age) that it would be so easy to fake one of these miraculous finishes in a marathon to get a quick minute of fame.

Reminds me of the days of Americas Funniest Home videos where the dad would amazingly have a video camera running during the most mundane of tasks only to get the dreaded "nut shot."

I watched the Today Show interview and saw video of him prior to that where we could see from his running form that his leg muscles were in trouble. I don't know whether out to was looking for attention when he crawled but I was glad he tried to downplay it in the interview and also he commented on not finishing within his time goal.

Regarding the need to finish without aid I thought I would mention I blew up with heat exhaustion during my first 10K road race on a hot summer day. It was the summer before my freshmen year and I was there with my XC coach and some teammates. I knew little about road racing did not take much water on the course. It turned out one of my relatives who was in the race ran up behind me after I fell and helped me. I don't know if I was in sight of the finish line. I was out of it mentally at the time and for some time afterwards but I recall thinking and probably telling my relative that I needed to finish by myself. I was thinking of the Olympic marathon racer who was DQ'ed for being helped to the finish line. See link to video below. I did not finish that day and was taken to a hospital because I was not recovering fast enough there at the race. I did not start to come out of the mental haze until the air conditioning of the ambulance cooled my body. So I am saying that if one is in bad enough shape they are not thinking clearing enough and may attempt to crawl to the finish without aid. I don't know if this was the case for this Boston runner. My 2018 Boston Marathon was on pace for the first 8 miles or so before hamstring issues occurred in both legs. I had problems with one leg for months before the race. When the 2nd one tightened I changed my goal from BQ time to just finishing the race without walking. I briefly thought about quitting but then thought I was at Boston and I was not about to quit or walk the course no matter how bad it would get. I want to finish and earn the medal. I would want the volunteers at the finish line to give me the opportunity to get across the line unaided. I thought those that ran marathons were a little crazy. Now that I have run marathons I think we need to be a little crazy because we are at a high risk of blowing up in many ways. It puts an incredible stress on our muscles and organs. We aren't doing it for our health. We are doing it to prove to ourselves that we can accomplish something mentally and physically challenging.

Regarding collapsing at or near the finish of a marathon I thought I would try to sprint the last roughly 200m at one race. I started sprinting and within a few seconds my head felt like it was floating. I immediately slowed my pace down as realized that I may faint if I continued that pace. So some runners are likely picking up the pace to an unsustainable level when the finish line is near. Once I cross the finish line when I switch to walking I often have trouble walking. My legs will buckle and even after that I cannot walk a straight line--I need to take an occasional side step to catch my balance. I needed the help of volunteers at the finish of the 2017 Chicago Marathon to walk after the finish and at the 2018 Boston Marathon finish I almost hit the ground when my legs buckled. An observant volunteer at the finish caught me and handed me off to someone else who handed me off again to someone else who then put me in a wheel chair. I sat in the aid tent for about 10 minutes before I felt that I could walk unaided. I might have to resort to crawling across a finish line if I slowed to a walk before the finish line. One of my goals is to never allow myself to walk any portion of a marathon. Part of the reason is to take the easy option off the board to give up and part of the reason is that walking may be more difficult than continuing to run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xU6DiRKCg

So those like me that are collapsing at the finish line are likely suffering from the following:

https://us.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpt/making-sense-of-why-runners-collapse

Even since IG, everyone is a drama queen. Pathetic.

+1

Well he made a miraculous comeback to be able to walk around the post race without any issue.

Apparently he just needed a post race orange slice and a chocolate milk.

FAKE NEWS

Citizen Runner wrote:

His split 35 km to 40 km is 12:17 mile pace and 40 km to finish is 24:27 mile pace, so it looks like he was in serious difficulty the last mile or two.

12 min mile pace and numerous news sites are claiming he crawled the final 4 miles...crawled on hands and knees at 12 min pace is really stout!

This story calls for marathon investigation! Can we get Derek on it asap?

When did he start the crawl? Looks like some of his photos show him walking, even talking on his phone, then all of a sudden crawl...

I've been in the depletion stage before where I couldn't get up, but it was b/c I kept pushing too hard and didn't slow down. You can't walk then get to a point where you need to crawl...atleast not in this distance. Maybe if you were crossing the Sahara or something.

I dunno wrote:

When did he start the crawl? Looks like some of his photos show him walking, even talking on his phone, then all of a sudden crawl...

That's what I was wondering too. If you're really fatigued, crouching down onto your hands and knees would be very painful (after tough marathons I wouldn't be able to squat down and the act of sitting down was painful, cramping up and such). Other crawlers, like the famous Ironman ones, involve a physical collapse then resort to crawling. This guy seemed to have pretty good motor function while crawling

Ciro wrote:

I like people who run the full marathon - Donald Trump.

This made me laugh, thanks for bringing it in.

But too answer the question.

I don't give a fluck.

First of all, someone else filmed and posted this -- this guy did not put this on his own Instagram. All of you who are claiming he did this on purpose for the fame are idiots.

Second, as some have mentioned but others still fail to realize, he wasn't army crawling in homage to lost soldiers, and he certainly wasn't wearing knee pads. He was crawling because his legs cramped up. I saw guys weaving from dehydration at mile 18 and some people literally collapsed while running. No reason to doubt that his legs were wrecked. For the wannabe investigative journalist who posted a link to his photos to prove that he was fine, it is clear that he was walking at the turn onto Hereford St. This guy was broken during the last mile and pushed his way to the finish.

I don't want to defend this guy as a hero because he's in the military, but he wasn't promoting himself either. He never asked for your approval or praise, so he certainly doesn't deserve your criticism. Get a life.

Professional women sometimes fall a step after the finish of a 1500 and lay on the found exhausted. I don’t think anyone does it really for show. It is sort of a learned reaction form witnessing others do it when tired. It’s like cursing or saying ouch when I’m pain. Obviously those words wouldn’t come out of your mouth if you didn’t speak English yet it is involuntary.

There was a guy who finished in the 2:48s next to me who ran at least the last 3 miles barefoot. Took a look more grit than crawling 15 feet, yet he's not on TV.