{"id":391909,"date":"2026-11-03T09:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T09:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391909\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T09:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T09:18:25","slug":"nyc-marathon-runner-rachel-apa-dies-after-collapsing-in-central-park-two-miles-from-finish-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/391909\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Marathon runner Rachel Apa dies after collapsing in Central Park two miles from finish line"},"content":{"rendered":"

A New York City marathon runner<\/a> died after collapsing in Central Park two miles from the finish line.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rachel Apa, 24, was taking part in her first marathon and running Sunday\u2019s event as part of the Parkinson\u2019s Champions team in honor of her late grandfather, who battled the disease before his death in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandfather was my role model growing up. He taught me to stay active, push limits, and embrace challenges, shaping my love for sports and movement,\u201d she said in a fundraiser.<\/p>\n

Apa \u2013 a former field hockey player for Pennsylvania\u2019s Bucknell University \u2013 had been training for months ahead of the 26.2 mile run \u2013 with her father, Steve Apa, telling the New York Times<\/a> his daughter was in \u201cperfect health, perfect shape.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

NYC marathon runner Rachel Apa collapsed on what was her first marathon Sunday. Bucknell Athletics<\/p>\n

She was being supported in the Big Apple by her mom, Michelle Apa, while Steve Apa was tracking his daughter\u2019s progress through the marathon app.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The runner was beaming in a video recorded by her mom when she reached the 14th mile \u2013 but worryingly texted her dad, \u201cOw\u201d at the 18th mile point, and messaged \u201cOw, Ow\u201d at the 19th mile when he had been rallying her.<\/p>\n

Apa, who was wearing light green, didn\u2019t text her dad again \u2013 but he sent a message saying \u201cFinal stretch\u201d when she had reached the 23rd mile.\u00a0The text went unanswered.<\/p>\n

But the runner collapsed in Central Park \u2013 prompting hospital social worker Michaela Nicholas, a spectator, to run over with her fiancee, and CPR was given at the scene.<\/p>\n

She died from rhabdomyolysis \u2014 a rare condition where muscles break down and disintegrate Instagram<\/p>\n

Around 60,000 runners gathered for the start of Sunday\u2019s race. Luiz C. Ribeiro for NY Post<\/p>\n

Fans held up signs as they gathered along 1st Avenue in Manhattan to cheer on the runners. Stephen Yang for NY Post<\/p>\n

Apa\u2019s mom also rushed over to the park after realizing her daughter wasn\u2019t making progress on the marathon tracking app.<\/p>\n

The runner was rushed to Mount Sinai before she died at 9:40 p.m. from rhabdomyolysis, according to her dad, who described her death as \u201cunfathomable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around 26,000 people develop rhabdomyolysis \u2013 a rare condition where muscles break down and disintegrate \u2013 in the US every year, according to the Cleveland Clinic.<\/a><\/p>\n

The last death that happened at the NYC Marathon was in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A whopping 61,146 participants finished this year\u2019s New York City Marathon \u2014 with New York Road Runners revealing that the race broke the world record for the largest marathon ever for the third consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Andreas Almgren of Sweden won the men\u2019s race with a time of 02:06:01<\/a>. His time was about a minute behind the record of 2:04:58 set in 2023 by Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia.<\/p>\n

Kenya\u2019s Sheila Chepkirui, 35, meanwhile captured her second victory in the women\u2019s race with a time of 2:24:36. Chepkirui also won the New York race in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A New York City marathon runner died after collapsing in Central Park two miles from the finish line.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1015,15663,57,9,24,55,2790,54,56,58],"class_list":["post-391909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-deaths","tag-marathons","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-marathon","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}