Cop Helps a Tired Woman Cross the 10K Finish Line
Asia Ford was at the back of the pack during a 10 K Run/Walk in Louisville Kentucky over the weekend. She was really struggling around the 4 mile mark, (It's a six mile trek). But Asia made it to the finish line with the help of her son and a police officer.
The photo of her finish is making it's way around the world.
USA Today reports Lt. Aubrey Gregory is the officer who gave Asia a helping arm. She took to her Facebook page to tell us her story and to thank Lt. Gregory, calling him, her "angel."
This 10K was Asia's latest goal in a quest to lose weight, at one point she weighed almost 475 pounds. During Saturday's race, she started feeling sick around the four-mile mark (On Facebook she said she forgot to eat that morning).
Lt. Gregory was incident commander for the run and was at the back of the race, he saw Asia having breathing trouble, so he got out of the car to check on her and called for the ambulance crew. Asia waved them off and said she was going to finish.
A short distance later, Lt. Gregory said he noticed the woman was having trouble again, so he told his partner he was just going to walk with her. "As soon as I walked up to her, she immediately grabbed my hand," Gregory said Asia told him she didn't want to stop, "I said, 'Good, then we're going to do this together.'
Along the way they got to know each other, Lt. Gregory shared how his mother fought diabetes and weight issues too.
Asia told Fox and Friends that when she was about a mile from the end, running out of steam, Lt Gregory kept talking to her and helped her finish. He even radioed ahead and told them to leave the finish line up cause one more person was coming through.
In the end Asia finished the 10K. It was a victory for her and apparently for the rest of the world too. That photo of her arm in arm with Lt. Gregory has been shared millions of times around the world.