Lynn Manzelmann

I’ve heard of runners collapsing on the course or near the finish line. I know it happens, thankfully rarely. Without looking it up, it seems like overheating or exhaustion would be the leading causes. It seems reasonable to jump to the conclusion that maybe the person wasn’t adequately trained. But as I learned, that wasn’t the case at all.


Yesterday after the Women's Half Marathon, while still in the post race party area, I heard a runner had collapsed near the finish line. It’s a sad thing to hear. You don’t expect it to be someone you know. Or someone you’ve talked to the last few weeks about training. Or someone who helped start and lead a training group.

Lynn Manzelmann is the runner who went down just before the finish line. I’d talked to her before the race. Along with other members of Nashville Cable, a women’s networking group, we’d gotten together before the race and had a picture made. Before the picture, she was telling me about the intervals they were going to do. She was so excited and so vibrant! I saw her running with some other fabulous ladies from CABLE at the half way point; she looked fantastic.


Lynn was well trained. She’d been training as long or longer than many other people running in the race. She had a heart attack. It was a 90% blockage. The last update I got last night from one of her good friends at the hospital was that her organs were shutting down, but she was hanging on. She needs a miracle to make it.


She’s strong. She’s a fighter. And she has a huge host of friends and fellow runners praying for her. Please continue to pray for her.

As a side note, the race was fabulous. I'll have another post this afternoon about the race.