T.J. Holmes Reveals How He 'Fell Apart' at the Chicago Marathon — and Ended Up in an Ambulance

Mar. 15, 2025

T.J. Holmes ended up in an ambulance after the Chicago Marathon.Photo:T. J. Holmes/INSTAGRAM

T. J. Holmes/INSTAGRAM

T.J. Holmesleft the Bank of America Chicago Marathonin an ambulance— and now, he andAmy Robachare sharing more details about the events that led up to his medical emergency on Sunday, Oct. 13.

“We are not having the morning after that we were expecting to have after a marathon,” Robach, 51 said on the Oct. 14 episode of their podcast,Morning Run.“Usually, it’s celebratory.”

Holmes, 47, explained that the morning of the marathon, “Every single thing that could have gone wrong went wrong.”

Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes run the Chicago Marathon on October 13, 2024.Amy Robach/Instagram

Amy Robach/Instagram

They struggled to find the correct check-in tent, which had food and “electrolytes, there was everything you needed to prepare for your marathon,” Robach said.

“I was upset,” she said. “We ended up starting a marathon with no bathroom," and neither of them could eat or hydrate.

“The fact of the matter is, you and I started a marathon without having a single drop of fluid and not having a single bite of food. That’s stupid,” Holmes said, adding that he figured they could get water along the route.

While Holmes said that he had been dealing with “anAchilles issue” for the past few months, it wasn’t his Achilles that triggered his medical incident on Sunday. “Achilles wasn’t the issue, ultimately, that caused me to have to stop,” Holmes said.

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T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach run the Chicago Marathon.Amy Robach/Instagram

Holmes broke down exactly what happened.

“I had to go around this pretty sharp curve,” he said, and “I didn’t have time to adjust to a guy [who] for reasons I don’t understand was walking in the middle of the marathon” instead of moving over to the side.

“This guy comes, just shocks me as I’m turning,” Holmes explained. “I didn’t have time, and I almost fall. And I have to grab onto him to try to go around him. As I was going down, I catch myself on my right leg.”

“Now, the Achilles that’s the problem is on my left leg. I catch myself with my right leg going down. And when I do it, I immediately feel the tweak in my right hip and kind of my right butt cheek.”

“And at that moment, I said, ‘Uh-oh,’ because this was a previous injury from my first marathon in 2022, the IT band,” or iliotibial band.

“You were literally grunting in pain,” Robach said. “It wasn’t until we finally ended up having to stop, and I saw tears running down your face, I knew it was probably over.”

They ended up on the side of the course around mile 21 when Holmes’ condition deteriorated.

“All of a sudden, you went so pale and you just started vomiting, like, on the street,” Robach said. “And they said, ‘We’re gonna call an ambulance,’ because they just got nervous at that point and understandably so.”

“You looked awful. You were so pale. You were shivering and shaking because you got these wet, sweaty clothing on, and now the wind is whipping, and it was pretty miserable.”

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The paramedics explained the vomiting was “my body…reacting to the pain and trying to adjust,” Holmes said.

He shared that despite his injury, “before we even got back to the hotel, my thought was all about [how] I gotta get healthy for the New York City Marathon in three weeks.’ “

“I know you’re running, and I’ll definitely cheer you on,” Robach said.

“I don’t need a cheerleader,” Holmes replied, quipping, “Obviously, I need a nurse.”

source: people.com