39-year-old Jamel Melville only had a couple hundred meters to go before he completed the 2021 New York City Marathon. Unfortunately, he collapsed before he was able to cross the finish line.
Melville would later tell NBC New York, "I knew I was close to the finish line. I didn't have that much longer to go, it was painful. Two hundred meters from the finish line I ran into some difficulties. I had been slowing my pace a little bit. I hit the proverbial wall, I didn't have it anymore."
It wasn't long before Melville was back on his feet though, all thanks to a few fellow runners who stopped running themselves in order to pick Melville up. "I know one of the runners passed me on my left and as he passed he sort of looked back and made up his mind to come help me," Melville said.
After lifting him up, the group of runners helped carry Melville across the finish line, something he and his girlfriend Ty Givens are appreciative of. She said, "That's a very selfless thing, especially when you have your goals and your times."
Melville added, "I'm gonna hold on to this for a long time and cherish the experience that I had going through what I went through."
LISTEN on the Audacy App
