1 min readAfter participating in a half marathon in Glasgow, Scotland, this past weekend, a 24-year-old runner collapsed shortly after crossing the finish line and was rushed to a local hospital, where he later passed away.
Aaron Johnston, of Enniskillen in Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was running in the Winter Warmer Run Half Marathon in the Scottish city on Sunday and successfully completed the race in 1:57:24. However, he felt unwell and collapsed shortly after. He was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, where he died not long after arriving.
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said they did not expect any suspicious circumstances regarding the incident. “Emergency services attended following a report of a 24-year-old man having taken unwell at Glasgow Green around 11:15 on Sunday 2 February,” the spokesperson said.
Johnston’s family expressed their shock at the incident in a statement posted on social media. “Words cannot describe what we are going through now,” the family wrote in a Facebook post from their business, Ashwood Garden Centre.
While rare, other tragedies involving younger runners have happened in recent years. In 2024, a 35-year-old runner, Caleb Graves, collapsed shortly after finishing a Disney half marathon in Anaheim and was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after. In 2023, 26-year-old Sam Norton died after completing the Santa Rosa Marathon in California.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Condé Nast Traveler and was most recently the senior editorial director at TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
