A 24-year-old runner in the New York City Marathon collapsed and d!ed just two miles from the finish line, despite being in “perfect health, perfect shape”, her father has said
Rachel Apa, from Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, was running on Sunday with the Parkinson’s Foundation Champions to raise money and honor her grandfather who had the disease, she said in a fundraising page.
It was Apa’s first marathon, though she was an athlete and had trained for months, father Steve Apa told the New York Times.
She d!ed from rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition where muscles break down and poison the bloodstream, which can be brought on by overexertion, her father said.
Near mile marker 24, Apa collapsed in Central Park and a bystander performed CPR before race medical staff arrived, race organiser New York Road Runners told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.
According to a New York Police Department statement, which did not name Apa, she was taken to hospital in critical condition.
She died that night. The city medical examiner’s office said it is still investigating Apa’s cause of de.ath.
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