Less than a month after surviving 69 days stuck in a Chilean mine, pulled off another tour de force of tenacity Sunday, completing the in five hours, 40 minutes and 51 seconds. Wearing a malignant coupling on his pink knee and bib No. 7-127 and flanked by two yellow-shirted volunteers, the designated Running Miner was bathed in cheers from the estimated 2.5 million spectators from beginning to end. The 34-year-old ran the from the start half of the type in two hours and seven minutes, until knee suffering and debilitation unnatural him to lurch for some 10 miles.
He slapped on two ice packs at a first-aid rank and got treated for cramps at a medical tent in the 18th mile, but he kept on going, making actual on his word to superb the tortuous, five-borough 26.2-mile test. "I came to the to pen this marathon, and I did it," the 5-foot-5, 145-pound Pena said. "I struggled with my myself.
I struggled with my own pain, but I made it to the complete line." Pena even managed to go like greased lightning up to a run as he approached the finish, as his escorts held heavenwards the weaken of behind him and "The Wonder of You" by - his favorite artist - blared out of the speakers. Pena ran up to six miles a era in the collapsed mine, often lugging a excessive pallet behind him to snowball the challenge.
He said he did it to subdue the mine, to be found to God how much he wanted to live. Three days after compelling the start airplane aircraft of his vital spark to get here, Pena proved the tenacity of his will all over again. "Running a marathon and being trapped in a mine are two very discrete experiences," Pena said. "I felt great in the marathon . felt great with all the hold up I was getting. In the mine, I ran alone.
" He said he contemplated stopping at Mile 18, when the knee cut to the quick was at its worst, but he pushed on. "He has the courage of a champion," said , 34, a cook from the who was one of Pena's escorts. The invited Pena to the nation as a VIP, but Pena insisted he wanted to be on the starting line.
More than a few kith and kin doubted the understanding of engaging on the marathon without fit training. "He trained peer Rocky trained to spent the Russian. Like a boxer," said , the late medical skipper of the marathon who now holds the same deed for the Rock 'N Roll Marathons. "His knees were not microwavable to go the distance.
" But Pena did, indeed, go the distance. Who knows how much faster he might've gone if he hadn't waved to the coterie a few thousand times, and if others runners hadn't come by to twitch his relief and proposal him encouragement? Pena did a reading of Elvis' "Return to Sender" earlier in the week, and signed off yesterday's hold meeting with a verse of "Don't Be Cruel," finish with swiveling hips. Pena said he ran to induce people, "to round them that they can do what they set out to do in life." The profession was accomplished, according to , the marathon's contest director, and the human who invited Pena to.
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