Exclusive | NYC Marathon runner Rachel Apas friend remembers her as determined and so competitive before race day death
A longtime friend of the New York City Marathon runner who collapsed and died in the final stretch of the race remembered her former teammate as a “determined” and “passionate” athlete who believed she could achieve anything she set her mind to.Rachel Apa, 24, passed away hours after falling at Mile 24 of the race in Central Park, succumbing to the rare muscular condition rhabdomyolysis.A gifted former student-athlete who played D1 field hockey at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, her friend Isabella Pavlides described how she was also a kind and loving friend — someone she looked up to like a big sister.“I always admired Rachel’s work ethic and the way she approached pretty much everything, especially with field hockey,” Pavlides, a 23-year-old pre-med student from Voorhees, New Jersey, told The Post.“She was so competitive, and when she had her mind set on something, and she wanted something, she put her whole heart into it and truly believed that she could get it done,” added Pavlides, who first met Apa at a hockey camp in 2018 before attending Bucknell together.Pavlides described the fallen runner as “extremely passionate and fierce,” saying that “she always believed in herself.”“She was always radiating confidence.If you could pick one person to get something done, it would be her.
She always figured out a way, and she was one of the most determined people I know,” the grieving friend went on.Pavlides said that as Apa was a year above her, she played a big part in her decision to go to Bucknell, a liberal arts college in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.“From the moment I stepped on campus as a freshman, she essentially took me under her wing and became like my best friend and my big sister,” Pavlides said.“I could not imagine my time at Bucknell without her,” she added, describing how the pair became roommates in her sophomore year, while both played forward for Bucknell’s field hockey team.“We would hang out together out...