This year’s Pittsburgh Marathon was one filled with heightened security measures and a lot of tension, following the Boston Marathon tragedy.  Fortunately, nothing like that occurred, but sadly there was one man that did pass away.

Kyle Chase Johnson, a 23 year old Penn State graduate and a veteran of half marathon running, collapsed at the 12 mile mark right in front of paramedics and went into cardiac arrest.  He would later be declared dead at UMPC Mercy.  At first there was no way of knowing how a young man in great physical shape could just drop dead of a heart attack at 23.  It was later found out that he had an underlying heart condition.

Outside of this very sad story, the Marathon was a great success with a lot of people running it in memory of those who were injured and died at the Boston Marathon.

The winner of this year’s Pittsburgh Marathon was James Kirwa, a man of Kenyan descent who also happened to win the 2012 Pittsburgh Marathon, making him the first person to win in back to back years since 1994.  He ran it in a time of 2 hours 37 minutes.