First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Rachel Apa, a 24-year-old former college field hockey player from Pennsylvania, has died after collapsing in Central Park near mile 24 of the New York City Marathon on Sunday, about two miles from the finish of her first marathon. Her father says doctors attributed her death to rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which damaged muscle tissue breaks down and releases proteins into the bloodstream that can overwhelm the kidneys.
Apa, of Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, was running with the Parkinson's Foundation's Champions team to raise money for research in memory of her grandfather, who died of the disease in 2022. She had trained for months and had raised more than $8,000, more than double her $4,000 goal. At mile 23 she texted her father that she had reached the final stretch.
She collapsed at about 1:30 p.m. near Fifth Avenue and 90th Street. Spectators rushed in and began CPR, race medical staff arrived with a defibrillator, and paramedics took her to Mount Sinai Medical Center. Doctors worked for six hours to save her. She was pronounced dead at 9:40 p.m.
Her father, Steve Apa, said doctors told the family the extreme exertion of the race brought on the rhabdomyolysis. "It's unfathomable. Perfect health, perfect shape, 24 years old," he said. The city's medical examiner has not yet released an official cause of death.
Apa played Division I field hockey at Bucknell University after starring at Red Land High School, and worked as a product manager at an electrical components company while pursuing an MBA. New York Road Runners, which organizes the marathon, confirmed her death on Tuesday — she is the first participant to die during the event since 2024, in a race that this year drew more than 61,000 finishers, the largest marathon in the world.
Doctors who treat the condition give runners and anyone who trains hard one warning worth acting on: severe muscle pain after extreme exertion, especially with very dark urine, is a sign of rhabdomyolysis — go to an emergency room immediately, because the damage to the kidneys can turn fatal within hours.
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