Former North Allegheny Football Player Dies While Running Pittsburgh Half-Marathon

A former North Allegheny football player, Kyle Chase Johnson, 23, died while running the Pittsburgh half-marathon Sunday, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported.

"Kyle was an outstanding young man," said Bob Bozzuto, North Allegheny's Athletic Director. "While attending North Allegheny, he was an outstanding, dedicated student athlete."

Johnson graduated from Penn State University one year ago today and had moved into an downtown Pittsburgh apartment with a long-time friend just a few weeks ago, the paper reported.

Mr. Johnson's mother, Mary Beth Deal, said Mr. Johnson was "on top of the world" after getting an accounting job at Deloitte & Touche.

"He was a wonderful, wonderful son," she told the Post-Gazette. "He loved to read, he was smart, he was kind and handsome."

His family said he had run a half marathon in New York City not long ago with "zero problem," the P-G reported.

The runner fell and went into cardiac arrest “right in front of our paramedics” at the 12-mile marker of the half-marathon in Uptown, Dr. Ronald Roth, medical director of the marathon, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him at the scene and continued to do so during a “30-second” ride to Mercy, but were unsuccessful, Roth said. The marker is about a mile from the finish of the half marathon.

“My wife and I were waiting by the overpass at Duquesne, just past mile 12. He never made it,” Johnson's father, Dan Johnson, 54, of Franklin Park, told the Trib. "He'd been planning to have a party for everyone at his apartment after the race; he'd gone out this week to get ingredients for pancakes so he could make everyone breakfast.”

“We want to extend our most comforting thoughts and prayers to the runner's family,” said Patrice Matamoros, marathon director, who posted a similar message to the Marathon's website Sunday afternoon.

Dr. Karl Williams, Allegheny County medical examiner, said his office will perform an autopsy Monday, the Trib reported.

Johnson's cause of death could be known as early as Monday if something fairly clear such as a structural heart defect is found, but investigators are treating the death as natural, Williams said told the paper.

It is the first time that someone has died along the marathon or half-marathon course since the race was revived in 2009.

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