She fought the good fight and finished her race. A Virginia teen died on Sunday, moments after accomplishing her goal of running a 13.1 mile race.
Cameron Gallagher crumpled to the ground at 9:30 a.m. after crossing the finish line at Virginia Beach’s Shamrock Half Marathon. The Richmond girl was rushed to a local hospital, but doctors were unable to revive her heartbeat. She passed away at 11. a.m. Family members who came out to cheer for the 16-year-old girl are now coming to terms with the fact that her young life was cut so short.
'It was her time to go,” dad David Gallagher told WTVR. “Her last act of life was an accomplishment.”
Cameron was a sophomore at Douglas Freeman High School. She was an active teen who won awards for competitive swimming. She had trained for the half marathon for nine weeks with her best friend Abby Donelson.
The pair completed Sunday’s race side-by-side. Cameron’s parents said their daughter looked excited at mile three. But by mile 10, she was noticeably tired. When she crossed the finish line after 2 hours and 19 minutes, Cameron was all smiles. But 50 yards later, her health began to deteriorate.
"I went to hug her," Donelson says. "We were walking away with our arms around each other and she said like 'I'm going to pass out.' And then she just kind of went down." Fellow runner Kelly Gdovic noticed the commotion.
“People were yelling to clear a hole and they were just literally running with her,” Gdovic told WAVY. “She appeared to be still unconscious on the stretcher and they were just running.”
A cause of death has not been released, but the teen’s parents told media that the death may have been due to a cardiac arrest.
“Grace and I were given a gift to be with her during her accomplishment and we were with her in end,” David said in a statement. “Please use Cameron’s story as an inspiration to set goals, overcome obstacles and fight the good fight. She did that every day.”
Before her death, Cameron had been organizing a 5K to promote awareness about suicide. Friends say that the teen’s “Speaking Up 5K” will continue in Cameron’s memory.
(link)
#artbydmcbride
No CPR at the scene?
Runners run
Don't share this with my mom.
Dad on the run.
There had to be some underlying health issues that they were not aware of. IMO.
Chasing the sub 20 5K.
A life interrupted at such a young age is always a tragedy. The parents seem to take it reasonably well though. I mean, I'm sure they are devastated, but they are not blaming running for the death of their child and they seem to take comfort in the fact she accomplished one of her goals before dying. I can only suppose it was a cardiac defect, or something of the kind... It doesn't sound like she was unprepared or that she overexerted herself...
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Mmmmm...beer
They tried. This happened at the event I ran. From what I've heard she was gone immediately, sounded like an undiagnosed cardiac condition. Incredibly sad.
-Dave
My running blog
Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!
faster than a glacier
Crazy that someone so young and apparently healthy could basically just drop dead like that
Yeah it almost has to be some kind of defect in her heart that nobody knew about. Can't imagine what her family is going through, my son is the same age and I can't even think about what I'd be feeling.
It's hard to imagine that a heart defect never showed up during her competitive swimming. Isn't that every bit as taxing as running a 2:19 HM? Obviously I've never been a swimmer. Or maybe, like her dad says, it was her time.
Sad.
Barking Mad To Run
That is awful and so sad....it's bad when this happens to anyone...but I especially hate it when it's a young person (child/teen)...such a tragedy...and so hard on the family....the loss of a child - at any age - is an awful thing but especially hard when the child is young..... my heart goes out to her family, but especially to her parents...
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt
Hip Redux
My guess is she had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I can go undetected for a while and then all of a sudden causes issues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertrophic_cardiomyopathy
It's hard to imagine that a heart defect never showed up during her competitive swimming. Isn't that every bit as taxing as running a 2:19 HM? Obviously I've never been a swimmer. Or maybe, like her dad says, it was her time. Sad.
Not really. Most swimming events are pretty much sprints and they're over in a couple of minutes or less.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
Former Bad Ass
That's usually the cause for these events.
Sad that she died so young.
Damaris
It doesn't sound like she was unprepared or that she overexerted herself...
My first thought was that she may have taken a caffeine infused energy gel at some point late in the race. I know the first and only time I tried one I did not like the effects (at all!) and I consume caffeine everyday and have for years.
They pass those out at mile 16 of Detroit and had I run it last fall I would have had to carry my own gels which have no caffeine.
ETA: Not saying that is what happened to her of course.