VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[tackerman]

I do believe this is the definition of a hardcase. Course she may have been in shock...

Link

Runner Breaks Leg, Crawls To Finish Line

Driven by determination, a local runner from Burton Township, breaks her leg during a cross country meet, but still makes it across the finish line.

Claire Markwardt is a cross country runner for the Berkshire High School track team. She was participating in the Ohio state high school cross country championship in Columbus November third, then had plans to be maid of honor at her sister's wedding that evening.

"I was fine until about 200 meters away and then it started to hurt and then it cracked a couple times," says Claire. The amazing finish was captured by several cameras.

Claire made it within forty feet of the finish line when her leg broke. She tried to get up, but it broke again.

"I knew I really couldn't stay there and I didn't wanna let my team down and I had gone that far, so there wasn't really a point in laying there." she said.

Amazingly, with a leg broken in several places, Claire crawled the rest of the way across the finish line. "It was my last race of my senior year and I didn't know how my team was doing in the race, but I wanted us to be as high as we could." she said.

"I think the first couple times I watched it, besides the "eww" factor, was how fast she crawled, it's just to do that anyway and then do it quickly was just kind of surreal," said track coach Julie Cole.

Claire missed her sister's wedding. She had to have the first of two surgeries that evening in a Columbus hospital. "I felt really bad that I didn't get to see my sister get married, but I didn't really have any other choice at that moment," Claire said.

Claire says she's received plenty of support from her teammates. The video is tough for Claire and her mother to watch, but her mom says when she does, she's inspired.

"Of course, it broke my heart, I just pictured my little girl crawling across the finish line, now that I've seen the video a few times, there were tears when I watched it of course, but now that I've seen it a few times I think...wow, I can't believe she did that," says her mother Nancy Markwardt.

Claire's leg is healing, but it could take six to eight weeks for it to completely heal.

[roger]

I'm never going to use the phrase: "break a leg", again.
-roger
_________________
Roger Tremaine
www.MyFavoriteVoice.com
http://rogertremaine.voices.com/
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. AESOP (The Lion and the Mouse)