This morning about 7:00 AM I rode the Trek road bike down to watch the AT&T Austin Marathon. I arrived about 30 minutes late, so I decided it would be OK to ride along the route, a block or two away, with occasional visits over to the main route so I could watch the marathon runners pass. I seemed to always be watching the people in the 3 to 4 hour pace group.
Of course, there were large sections that I missed: I did not go south of the river, and I went on the west side of Camp Mabry (this was a very hilly option with a lot of cars going this way to avoid the runners), and I didn't go north to Anderson Lane either. I cut across town on North Loop and caught the race on the way back down towards town. From there the riding was easy, downhill and the wind to my back. Another nice thing was that the police had the roads blocked off, so there was no stopping for stop lights. Also by this time the runners had thinned out so there was no problem sharing the road with them.
On the stretch just east of the Capitol I was following another cyclist, about 100 yards behind, and suddenly he jumped of his bike and went over to a runner who had collapsed on the road. A band that was playing along the side of the road started calling for EMS to come and help, and several people from along the sidelines came out to help the runner.
He was attempting to get back up then he would run a little ways and fall. The people helping him would catch him so he wouldn't fall hard. I was trying to decide what to do... I decided to continue and see if I could find some emergency medical people, since I didn't see any coming and there were plenty of people helping already.
At the top of the next hill there was a medical tent and I went in and told the staff about the collapsed runner and they started racing in his direction. I asked some of the remaining people if I should go back with them, and they said no.
From that point it was just an easy downhill to the finish. Some time later I saw the guy that had collapsed. The bicyclist was still running with him. I'm not sure if the medical crew revived him or if he managed to get up and continued running before they got there.
I never did see Daniel or Andrea, the people I have been running with on Sunday. I did see Mike Muench, an Overwatch manager, at about mile six.
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Wow, glad you were able to get help for that runner! And that he was able to get through to the finish. Sounds like he was almost through the worst of it at that point.
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