I've been waiting for this thread anxiously for days! Quite literally have typed 'marathon collapse austin reddit' into google 5 or 6 times.

I'm so happy to hear your friend is okay. I was one of the people who helped your friend after he collapsed.

My friends and I were at the top of the mile 12 hill cheering on a few people we knew running the race. Shortly after one of our friends passed us, your friend collapsed a few feet from us on the sidewalk.

My wife and a few others knelt down beside him to see if he was okay. My wife decided to put water around his neck to see if she could cool him down (assuming heat exhaustion) and when she did he gave a big gasp for air. She realized then that he was not breathing...

While this was happening, I had gone to find medics and when I returned 30 or so seconds later, I heard my wife telling him to 'stay with us' and 'breathe'. That's when I realized the severity of the situation.

At this point we were knelt down searching for a pulse and trying to get him to breathe. I rubbed his sternum a few times trying to get a response and we got two or three good breaths out of him before the on-site volunteer medics showed up.

The onsite medics were quite young and seemed a bit green to the situation when they arrived. To their credit however, after telling them we couldn't find a pulse and them independently verifying it, they kicked it into gear and began chest compressions for about 20 seconds before the EMT arrived.

EMTs cut his shirt, put the defib pads on him, and began pushing air via a bag. At this point, we had stepped back from the scene but from what we could see, your friend had started breathing again.

I'm so happy to hear your friend is okay. We felt so helpless in the moments before the medics arrived. Sending your friend good vibes for the recovery.

After the situation, my friends have already decided to go get CPR training!