73-year-old grandfather John Wilkie is a veteran half marathon runner. Ever since he retired from his job as a civil engineer ten years ago, he began to run as a way to stay healthy.
This past Sunday’s half marathon was to be his 8th race and counting.
At the beginning of every race, Wilkie includes in his preparations, mental preparations just in case he falls at one of these events.
“I had thought about what I would do if this ever happened so I had it ingrained in my mind to tuck and roll,” he explained.
Wilkie has been fortunate in the past. He’d never fallen at a race – until this Sunday.
Just 60 yards off the finish line, Wilkie’s foot got caught on a stroller on the sidelines. He fell to the ground, violently.
“I leaned to the left and put my arm down,” Wilkie recalled. But everything happened too quickly for any of Wilkie’s mental preparations to do him any good.
Upon impact, his glasses got knocked askew and dislodged one of his contacts. “The brunt of the force was taken by my forehead,” he said. “There was so much blood that it looked like a Halloween costume.”
Before Wilkie could even register what had happened, he felt himself hoisted up from the ground by two sets of arms.
Two men just behind Wilkie rushed in to help him off the ground and across the finish line.
The men, fellow runner Nathanael Dillard and spectator Colin Jackson, immediately took Wilkie to the EMT tent where Wilkie’s wife then took him to the hospital emergency room to get stitches.
Everything happened so quickly, Wilkie didn’t even have a chance to thank the men for helping him out.
But upon Wilkie’s request, a local news station was able to reunite him with Dillard – under less bloody circumstances – and now the two have plans to “maybe down the road…run another half marathon together.”
