Running 26.2 miles in New York is torture, says a man who was trapped in a Chilean mine for 69 days.
Although he ran the first half in a respectable two hours and four minutes, the pain started to get to Edison Pena as he headed up First Avenue this afternoon. He finished about 20 minutes ahead of his six-hour goal, walking the last 12 miles.
Pena ran into trouble in The Bronx, and and had ice packs strapped to the knees he injured during his subterranean ordeal.
“Bad, bad, bad, very bad,” Pena, 34, told the Post as he walked past the mile 20 marker in the Bronx today. “My knee hurts a lot.”
The determined miner grimaced with each step. At the finish, the 34-year-old was draped in a Chilean flag as his favorite music — Elvis — played over the speakers.
“I’m here because I want people to feel free,” Pena said. “I want them to strive for their own freedom. That’s why it was worthwhile for me to come this far to run a marathon. … I struggled with myself, I struggled with my own pain, but I made it to the finish line.”
— with AP