Katharina Buczek
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Meghan Roth, an elite runner, coach, and mother of a nine-month-old living in Minneapolis, suffered a heart attack while running in the 2021 Boston Marathon on October 11th.
Roth has been a passionate athlete for her entire life and even qualified for the USA Olympic Trials after running in the 2019 Boston Marathon.
While walking to this year’s marathon, Roth was both nervous and excited.
“After everything that has happened these past couple of years with Covid, pregnancy, and then a great training cycle postpartum, I was ready to race my next best race of my life,” she posted on her Instagram account @run4prs.coachmeghan.
Roth began the race by easing into the first mile. Soon after, she found other runners to pace herself off of and settled into a steady speed.
“I was feeling good and just cruising. Then suddenly, at mile eight, I basically passed out and blacked out,” Roth said, “It hit me so suddenly and I fell to the ground.”
Marathon runners and observers around Roth said that she looked purple. A young man began to perform CPR until the paramedics arrived.
“Waking up in the ambulance, I was so confused. I went into a brief panic trying to figure it out while the medic calmed me down,” she recalled.
Instagram; pictured above is Meghan
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