@loveisintheair801: She was two miles from the finish line of her first marathon. Her dad was following every mile on his phone, texting her on. Then the replies stopped. Rachel Apa, 24, from Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, ran the New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 1. She had trained for months, and she was not running just for herself. She was part of the Parkinson's Champions team, raising money in memory of her grandfather, who died of Parkinson's disease in 2022. "My grandfather was my role model growing up," she wrote on her fundraiser page. "He taught me to stay active, push limits, and embrace challenges." Rachel was a former college field hockey player, and by every account she was in perfect health. Her mother, Michelle, was in New York and filmed her beaming as she passed mile 14. Her father, Steve, tracked her from home on the marathon app and sent her encouragement as she ran. At mile 18, she texted him: "Ow." A mile later: "Ow, Ow." He told her to slow down and take it easy, that finishing mattered more than speed. When she reached mile 23, he sent her one more message: "Final stretch." She never replied. At around 1:33 in the afternoon, near mile 24 in Central Park, about two miles from the finish, Rachel collapsed. A spectator named Michaela Nicholas, a hospital social worker, saw her bib, number 29977, with the name Rachel on it, and ran over with her fiancé to start CPR. Her mother, watching her daughter's location on the app sit still at mile 24, arrived in time to see the ambulance pulling away. Doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital worked on Rachel for more than six hours. She was pronounced dead at about 9:40 that night. Her family says the cause was rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscle tissue breaks down under extreme exertion and releases substances into the blood that can damage the kidneys and other organs. The medical examiner's official findings are still to come. Her father's words were simple: "It's unfathomable. Perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old." 61,146 people finished this year's New York City Marathon. Rachel Apa came within two miles of joining them, running for her grandfather.

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Thursday 05 November 2026 12:37:00 GMT