Running a marathon isn’t an easy feat, as the Chicago Marathon participants and the crowd cheering them on over the weekend can attest.
Months of training culminate in a one-day, 26.2-mile trek, with runners laser-focused on crossing the finish line in the fastest time possible.
Nothing can stop some of them, not even the sight of an unresponsive man on the ground — a sight that some runners slowed down to glimpse before continuing on at the Berlin Marathon in late September.
Eliza Pierko wasn’t among those who kept sprinting forward. She was just as eager to complete the race and break a personal record, but Pierko paused, motivated by another trait she shares with other endurance runners: empathy and compassion for fellow competitors.
Fortunately for the man, who went into cardiac arrest, Pierko is also a doctor who, like others, takes seriously her professional pledge to help those in physical distress.
Pierko, a Loyola Medicine sports medicine physician, quickly started performing CPR on the man, who appeared to be in his 60s.
Many spectators at the 21.5 mile mark also banded together in the rescue effort, according to Sun-Times reporter Kade Heather. One person called for an ambulance. Others held up a blanket to shield Pierko as she attempted to revive the man. Another bystander soon joined in. Two minutes later, paramedics arrived with defibrillator pads to shock the man, restoring his normal heart rhythm.
Once Pierko determined the man was “in safe hands,” she took off running again. She used four minutes and 20 seconds to help save the man’s life, but she still ended up breaking her personal marathon record time by two minutes and 53 seconds. That is a performance we’d characterize as being miles away from a run-of-the-mill victory.
The actions of Pierko, and the race onlookers who helped her, exemplify cooperation and altruism in the face of unexpected chaos.
Unlike the fans, however, Pierko had adrenaline on her side. She could have just expended that energy into her run. She didn’t.
Even if Pierko had run her slowest race that day, she still would have been a winner — because of the kindness she extended to a stranger.
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