That's what I was getting at... maybe every once in a while a collapse after finishing might be legit.
But collapsing prior to the finish is very credible in terms of authenticity.
Anybody have any collapsing stories we can analyze? Of course I've told of my wipeout at the workout club (treadmill), but that is something different altogether. Not falls... exhausted body-no-longer-working collapses.
JEH,
They keep saying his name over and over on the audio, but just because I want to I'll not mention his name. I looked him up on the internet and found several races he has run, including last fall. I must say his times weren't that impressive. He went through the bell at 13:51 and could have possibly snuck under 15 minutes had he not cramped up - that was way better than he had performed up to that race - they said his qualifying time was 15:31. Anyway, it does appear that he pushed himself to the limit. Too bad the race wasn't 4960 meters. Hope he makes a big splash in his next race.
Probably four or so years ago, in the 1,600 meter run at states there were three or four studs (at least for the state) going at it.
Last straight away comes and one just collapses. Not because of cramps (that i know of), but just pure exhaustoin. Fought and crawled his way to the finish.
Happened to me at the end of a marathon. Totally crashed and collapsed a few times. Finished running about 15 minute miles with bloody knees and couldn't remember much of anything, including my name. A couple of IVs and an hour later, and I was laughing about it.
Success can be measured in a variety of ways. Emptying the tank is one.
I have a couple of them so I hope its not a pattern... The first time I ever did was at the Armory in NYC I was running the two mile and this is pre fixed up nice armory - so if anyone ran there in the 80's they will know what I am talking about ripped up wood track, beds for the homeless piled in the center of the track, heavy heavy air... anyway they screw up the lap count so we wind up running 17 laps instead of 16 I get to the finish and just drop... next thing I know I am in a chair with people all around me not a clue what was going on.
was at the finish of a 440 (yes I did run a few of those) That one was a dive for the line in a blanket finish so I don't count that one...
The last time was this past NYC marathon. I got stuck behind a lot of folks early so much stoppping and starting through the first 5 miles or so and then again around 8 miles, tried like hell to pick it up in the middle - but the water stops this year seemed to me at least to be much more chaotic (I don't know if anyone else was out there this year) so I wound up skipping a few too many and it hit me around 22 miles or so vicious cramps. I ran through a lot but around 24 it was too much I couldn't even walk straight felt my my muscles were just going to tear apart, struggled for a bit and picked it back up, stopped and started over the next few miles... struggled to run my way up that last little bump that felt like a hill at that point, and got across the line barely able to lift my feet up from cramps. Both legs tied up and my foot dragged across the mat and down I went flat on my face. I couldn't get up because my legs were cramped for a bit people ran over I was like just give me a minute here, they helped me up and out of the way. So two out of three being spent isn't all that bad...