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Teen Crawls to Finish Race for Ailing Coach

Holland Reynolds (left) recovers in an ambulance as she and her University teammates celebrate their championship title. Robin Hauser Reynolds

A high school cross country runner in San Francisco has given professional athletes something to aspire to. Holland Reynolds dragged her body across the finish line in a race on Saturday, fighting through extreme fatigue and cold to secure a title for her ailing coach.

As Mitch Stevens, of CBS News' sister site MaxPreps reports, Reynolds knew she had to complete the race to guarantee her school the championship title -- an honor she was keen to win for her teammates, and her coach, Jim Tracy, who was diagnosed with the incurable Lou Gehrig's disease in June.

At the 2.5 mile mark in a 3.1 mile race, Reynolds was running a strong third place. But that's when her body started shutting down. With just two yards left, she hit the proverbial "wall", collapsing in the grass.

"I just wanted it so badly for our coach," Reynolds tells Stevens. "And I was willing to do anything to get there."

Click here to read Mitch Stevens' full story on MaxPreps.com

So with her mind spinning and her body shaking, the young runner crawled over the finish line, then passed out. She was revived in an ambulance a little while later, where her teammates gave her the good news -- she had done it, and they had won.

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