CAPE ELIZABETH, Maine (WHDH) — A distance runner willingly fell short of winning the race he was in after he stopped to help another runner who needed help.
Jesse Orach was in the lead during the From Beach to Beacon 10K when he said he started feeling sick.
“I thought it was home free. And it ended up being a lot further that I thought. So what happened is I mentally kind of shut down a little bit,” said Orach.
Orach made it nearly 100 feet bfeore he collapsed. He said he then felt someone grab his shoulders — fellow runner, Ron Gomez.
“He said something along the lines of, ‘UP, you’re gonna finish this,’ or something like that,” said Orach.
Gomez helped Orach up and together, the two men crossed the finish line in 31 minutes and 31 seconds.
“I was sort of doing something that anyone in the Maine running community would have done, I just happened to be the lucky one to do it,” said Gomez.
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