Chicago Marathon: Runners Helping Others

Here's a wonderful example of people helping others. The video was posted on the RR forum and took place at the Chicago Marathon: http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfox/pages/Home/Detail;jsessionid=5314E3B3FBD91A33734853D9A3F125CF?contentId=7631071&version=6&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=1.1.1&sflg=1 Personally, I can't believe the many people who ignored the man and just continued running. I could not do that.

I didn't realize that getting assistance on a course results in disqualification from qualfying for the Boston Marathon. Someone posted an article from the Runner's World, from the fallen runner's perspective: http://dailyviews.runnersworld.com/2008/10/chicago-the-fal.html. It's a great read. In the video, I noticed that the runner did taken to the 2 men who came to his assistance (they got there before the medics did). Since the fallen man didn't get a qualifiying time for Boston (the other 2 men already qualified), he accepted their help to get back on his feet. A more "hurting" story would have been crawling to the finish line and qualifying for Boston, then to receive assistance and meet the qualifying time but being disqualified since you got assistance.

For someone like myself who will not qualify for Boston, I would ask the fallen runner if he was okay and wanted help. I think that's important since you don't want to assist someone who refuses (as who knows what damage can be done to the person's body).