Source : ABC NEWS
One of two men who helped carry a fellow runner across the finish line of the Boston Marathon said he had been struggling too, but drew strength from the supportive crowd.
“If I had to go farther, I would have,” Aaron Beggs said in an interview on Thursday, local time.
“It’s fight or flight, and I decided to fight and help him get to our destination.”
Beggs, of Northern Ireland, and Robson De Oliveira, of Brazil, sprang into action on Monday when Ajay Haridasse collapsed about 300 metres from the end of the course.
Beggs had also been feeling sick and exhausted, but was reminding himself of all the people in his running club who might never get to experience such an iconic race.
“Then when I came down and up towards Boylston Street, the crowd started cheering, and I just turned the corner and happened to see Ajay fall,” he said.
“I looked at my watch and I looked at him again and the natural instinct was just to go and pick him up.”
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For Beggs, the moment capped an incredible experience, from being cheered on by local college students to chatting with a fellow runner wearing his father’s name on his shirt just to hear onlookers call it out.
“We were shaking hands as we were running, and I was like, ‘We’ve got this. Let’s do this together,'” he said.
“It’s not like in shorter races where you’re head-to-head trying to beat people. In the marathon, you’re cheering each other on and encouraging everybody.”
Video of the runners’ good deed has gone viral. Beggs said he had been in touch with Haridasse, a Massachusetts native and student at Northeastern University, and hoped to reconnect with Robson as well.
Their finishing time was good enough to qualify for next year’s race.
“Three strangers, three different countries, and we’ll have a story for the rest of our lives,” he said.
“We all need just a nice story in our lives, just to make us smile, bring a tear to your eye with happiness. And it’s nice to be nice.”
AP
