Gazelles Never Quit - Kurt Wilkin's Story at the Austin Marathon
Feb 22, 2010
http://news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=267606 One runner was faced with that exact question at this month's Austin Marathon when he thought his race was over. "I had trained a lot. I was very hydrated. I had seven ‘goos’ that morning. I had water at every water stop and then around mile 24, I started feeling out of it a little bit," Austin Marathon runner Kurt Wilkin said. Wilkin was less than a mile away from the finish line when he collapsed. "At 25 and a half or so, I thought I had crossed the finish line, and I was just relaxing. The next thing I know, people are waking me up, pouring water on me," he said.
How far would you go to complete your ultimate goal?
Wilkin was put in an ambulance, given three bags of IV and taken to the hospital. Despite a lot of training, he would not finish the marathon or the seven race distance challenge he'd worked so hard to complete.
"It was a little scary at the time. Especially knowing my wife and kids were there wondering where Daddy was," Wilkin said.
But that's just where the story begins. "I convinced the doctors to let me go and finish the last few blocks of the marathon," he said. Wilkin would not settle for finishing the race another day. He wanted to finish it right then, and he convinced his wife to take him back to the same spot where he thought he had failed. "I said, 'You know what? I want to go do it. I don't care what the time is.' I walked across the finish line just to accomplish it, and just to be done. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. I was happy to chalk it off my list," Wilkin said.
Although the race took a little longer than he had planned, Wilkin did finish it.
"In seven hours versus three hours and 53 minutes," he said.
Kurt Wilkin said he's now telling his wife, no more full marathons. He said he’ll stick to half marathons from now on.
