Runner, 24, texted her father 'Ow ow' before dying two miles from the New York City Marathon finish
Rachel Apa had been running to raise money for the Parkinson's Foundation in honour of her grandfather, who died of the disease in 2022.
Rachel Apa, a 24-year-old former Division I field hockey player from Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, had told her father Steve she had "never felt this good" just hours before collapsing at mile 24 in Central Park. She died that evening at Mount Sinai Hospital from rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscle tissue breaks down, flooding the bloodstream with toxins that the kidneys cannot process, fatally triggered by extreme exertion.
Her mother Michelle was waiting at mile 25 for a daughter who never arrived, and was driven to the hospital by an EMS worker.
Rhabdomyolysis kills 5 to 10 per cent of those it strikes, with early warning signs — swelling, weakness and dark urine — easily dismissed by athletes pushing through pain.
