In the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics, Rose Harvey of Great Britain placed 78th out of 91 competitors and 80 finishers.
That may have been a disappointing result for some. However, it was among the most outstanding Olympic performances for the athlete. BBC reported that Harvey had a stress fracture in her femur when she crossed the finish line of the event. She had a hip ailment going into the day, which was made worse by what may have been the most torturous course ever designed for a big marathon.
It’s remarkable Harvey finished at all, given the number of hills and valleys in Paris, let alone that she did so in under three hours, with a time of 2:51:03.
She said: “It was really tough. It was a really, really hard day. I knew from about two miles in that my hip was going to be really, pretty painful. The hills didn’t help at all, the downhills were just agony and it just got worse and worse. At the halfway mark, I knew that it was going to be incredibly painful… Honestly, today I’m not sure how I did it because I can’t put any weight on my leg at all.”
On bearing injuries before the Olympics
Harvey reportedly underwent treatment for the hip before the Olympics, but she was told that competing in the marathon would worsen the condition. She made the decision to enter the race since there were no reserves from Great Britain to replace her.
She admitted that she could not have done it without the support of her family and friends. She declared: “Having so many friends and family out there, it just means so much, to have that support. My fiancé Charlie was there and seeing him in so many parts just kept me going. Every mile, I just thought ‘Right, just run to Charlie, run to when I can see him next, when I can see my friends and family next.’ The crowds were incredible and I think the other big thing is I knew deep down if I stopped, I would always wonder ‘What if just could have run an extra mile? I wouldn’t have been able to live with that… Any other race I would have stopped, because I wasn’t able to run like I normally can… and the pain was really bad, but I just had to get to that finish line, I had to do the Olympic marathon.”
With a time that set an Olympic record in the marathon, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands took home the gold medal.
Harvey is currently using crutches to get around, which could be problematic given that her wedding is in three weeks. She said: “My big challenge is to hopefully be off crutches for the wedding but we will see. It might be Charlie walking down the aisle at this rate.”
Source: Yahoo! Sports