Josh Holley, center, with support runners Malachi Henry and Kasey Coleman, stop for a photo around Mile 15 of Sunday’s New York City Marathon.
Submitted photo
Josh Holley’s trek through New York City on Sunday didn’t go as smoothly as he had hoped, but he still was able to finish the third of six Abbott World Marathon Majors.
The 24-year-old Holley took a hard fall around Mile 3 when a runner cut in front of him, and he tripped over the runner. That led to a painful final 23 miles of the New York City Marathon.
“We were doing our regular pace the first three miles, and then I fell,” Holley said. “I got up, and I started bleeding a little bit. After I got hurt, I got to about Mile 8, and I’ll be darned if I’m not going to get this medal.”
Holley, who suffers from asthma and recently had surgery on his nose, also experienced breathing problems, in addition to the hip that he reinjured when he fell.
“His breathing wasn’t as good as it normally is today, and his hip problem resurfaced,” said his coach, Andy Hunnicutt. “He said about Mile 3 is when it really started. But he toughed through it. (Support runner) Malachi (Henry) called me at one point and said, ‘How hard do we push him.’ They kept him moving, and this time, we didn’t have to take him to the medical tent.”
Prior to the trip to New York, Holley had an MRI scheduled for Thursday in Greenwood. It’s the same imaging center that Henry used when he had a torn labrum last year.
Henry and Kasey Coleman served as Holley’s support runners on Sunday.
“We just had to keep playing little game with Josh to keep him going,” Coleman said. “We had him look for the next mile marker. We would allow him to walk a quarter-mile or so, and then we would run to the next landmark.”
Holley, Henry and Coleman were among the 52,088 runners who started Sunday’s marathon. They boarded a bus at 5 a.m. and were taken to start line for the 8 a.m. start. The trio were in first wave after wheelchair and professional runners.
Holley’s official finish time was 4 hours, 3 minutes, 26 seconds. In last year’s Chicago Marathon, he ran 2:53:17, which was at the time a world record for Special Olympics athletes.
“I think he was really excited for it and a little upset,” Henry said of Sunday’s event. “The race didn’t go as planned. But he showed a lot of grit. He knew how long it was going to take for him to get to the finish line because the struggles started soon. Probably Mile 7, he started having a tough day. It was really cool for Kasey and I to see and to be a part of, and we were glad to see Josh finish and not give up. Ultimately, you have good days, and you have bad days in this sport, and for him to fight through today was huge for his growth and as a young man.”
