WATCH: Runner Crawls to Austin Marathon Finish, Places Third

Hyvon Ngetich of Kenya appeared to be headed to an overwhelming victory at the Austin Marathon when she was suddenly running on empty, and then she wasn’t running at all.

In the final 50 meters of Sunday’s race, Ngetich dropped to her hands and knees and began crawling to the finish line, so depleted that she came to a complete halt more than once during her crawl. Marathon personnel hovered behind her with a wheelchair to provide Ngetich with assistance, but she persisted and crossed the line in 3:04:02, still good for third place.

“I was like winning, you know. I was 500 [meters] in front. I looked back and I didn't see anybody," Ngetich said in a report carried by KTBC and other media outlets. “For the last two kilometers, I don't remember," added the Kenyan, who won the 2011 Santiago Marathon in Chile in 2:34:42. One woman on a bicycle told her she was nearly at the finish “so I was just like going because I’m almost” done, said Ngetich.

Austin Marathon Director John Conley said, “When she came around the corner on her hands and knees, I have never, in 43 years of being involved in this sport, have seen a finish like that."

The Austin victory and $3,000 went to Texas-based Kenyan Cynthia Jerop. Hannah Steffan of Austin passed the prostrate Ngetich right before the race’s end and bested her by three seconds in 3:03:59, worth $2,000. Third place would customarily be worth $1,000, but Conley said he’d upgrade her prize money to the $2,000 she would have gotten for second place.

"Running, always you have to keep going, going," Ngetich said.