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Picture-perfect finish at Boston Marathon

Four unidentified runners carry exhausted competitor over finish line.

Washington Post photographer Wesley Lowery captured this heroic moment at the Boston Marathon, when runners helped a stranger who had collapsed cross the finish line.
Washington Post photographer Wesley Lowery captured this heroic moment at the Boston Marathon, when runners helped a stranger who had collapsed cross the finish line.Read more
    by BY TOM MAHON, Daily News Staff Writer <a href="mailto:mahont@phillynews.com">mahont@phillynews.com</a>
    Published 

IF A PICTURE paints a thousand words, this was an American classic.

A runner collapsed near the finish line of yesterday's Boston Marathon, not far from where the first bomb exploded last year.

Wesley Lowery, a photographer for the Washington Post, tweeted pictures of what happened next.

First one runner stopped to help. Then three more.

Two lifted the exhausted runners by the legs, while the other two grabbed his arms. Together, the five crossed the finish line, prompting what Lowery called "the loudest cheer I've heard today."

The touching scene was more than an act of sportsmanship. It was the very essence of why terrorists will never get the upper hand in this country.

People here care about one another. Buildings get knocked down. We rebuild. Bombs go off and people - looking to help - run toward the explosions instead of away from them.

A runner falls, we pick him up.

It's what makes America great. And it will never change.

Oh baby!

Sarah Norcott held a sign for her husband, Jim, to read as he neared the finish line of the Boston Marathon:

"Bib No. 4559," it read. "We're having a . . . boy."

The two had been saving an envelope containing the news. Yesterday, Sarah opened it at the race and filled in the word, "boy" on the nearly complete sign.

By the way, she was wearing a blue shirt that read, "Future Boston Qualifier."

Nice touch.