RICHMOND, Va. -- Making it to a marathon finish line takes dedication, commitment, and months of training, but one VCU student didn’t get to cross the finish line of her first marathon until nearly a month after she started.
Kasey Mize started the Nov. 11 Allianz Richmond Marathon feeling great. She had spent months training with the Sports Backers Marathon Training Team and felt ready. But 21 miles into the race, things started to change.
“It started getting a little bit harder. And I thought, ‘OK, well, this is a marathon like that's what people do. It's hard,'" Mize said. "But I just slowly, slowly started to like, get a little foggy in my mind. My hands and feet were like numb.”
And then she started to slow down. And that’s when things got worse.
“I had people starting to pass me like pacers that were supposed to be like, 10 minutes behind me. I was like, yikes, this is not good," Mize said. "So, at 25 and a half miles, … my legs locked up. And I was like, I'm going down.”
She collapsed on the course less than a mile from the finish line, unable to go any farther. Bystanders sprang into action to help her.
“I had strangers come and stay with me for like, 30 minutes as EMTs like picked me up, put me in a truck bed. My whole body just cramped up," Mize recalled. "I mean, was not my my favorite moment ever. But literally, yeah, God carried me through that whole experience.”
She was rushed to the hospital where she learned she had a condition called Rhabdo. It can happen when your muscles break down after injury or excessive exercise and it can be life-threatening.
Since race day, she has been recovering and nursed back to health. It was her Marathon Training Team, especially her head coach Elliott Rose, that encouraged her to finish her race and rallied her teammates to support her and showed up to cheer her on as she finally crossed the finish line Dec. 7.
“He got everybody here and coordinated things," Mize said about Rose and her support system. "And it has just blown me away. And I invited a lot of my friends and I was just shocked at how they were all like, 'Yes, I'll be there immediately.'”
So what was it like for her to finally finish her race?
“It's like first thought: try not to cry. Second thought: try not to fall down. Because I'm just overwhelmed. I mean, I think you could tell my face is like frozen and a smile.”
So what’s next for Mize and her fellow runners on her marathon training team?
“No matter what, I'll definitely be training with them," she said. "I would love to really complete one start to finish in one day. That would be a great goal.”
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