26 mile smile

Update on the New York marathon run by Nadine and Tyler McNeil.

EARLY FINISH Nadine McNeil, 42, who had a stroke when she was 8 and lost the use of her right arm and right leg, competed in the handcycle division of the marathon and finished in an unofficial time of 3 hours 54 minutes 59 seconds. Her 18-year-old son, Tyler, who is autistic, made his marathon debut, running a time of 5:07:48.

But McNeil missed her son’s finish. She said she thought his time would be about six hours, so she was nervously waiting in a finishers’ tent at 72nd Street and Central Park West. As she was about to head back to the finish line, Tyler arrived with his guide.

“My friends said he had a smile on his face for all 26 miles,” McNeil said. “I couldn’t be prouder of him. I would have been proud of him if he had run 50 feet and stopped.”