PITTSBURGH — Among all the inspirational athletes seen at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon, one man stood out from the crowd, with the bib name “Slow Tony.”
Anthony Kovatch, 73, a retired pediatrician from the North Hills, proudly finished the race in last place.
“I was sprinting at the end, you would never believe that by looking at that picture, I’m hustling up that hill,” Kovatch said
Kovatch sat down with Channel 11’s Cara Sapida to talk about the video of him crossing the finish line, which has now been ‘liked’ half a million times ons social media. He crossed at 7 hours and 41 minutes, though he started in the last heat.
“And the announcer says, ‘and here’s Tony Kovatch, 73 years old and look at how he’s coming in!’ and everybody cheers. There’s a lot of perks to finishing at the end of a race,” he said.
Kovatch said the response has been unexpected, with phone calls, texts and messages from practically everyone he knows
“This is the first time anything like this has happened to me where you become a celebrity!”
Tony has dozens of medals. He picked up marathon running 25 years ago. Sunday was his 10th Pittsburgh marathon, and his first last-place finish.
“This was the most exciting race I’ve ever done,” he said, crediting the crowd for cheering him on. “I think it helped me run! I was waving and saying thank you. I think I was more exhausted saying thank you to people than I was running!”
Tony plans to run again next year and even work on his speed. He is proud of his finishing time and hopeful it will inspire people, on and off a marathon course, to never give up.
“There might be people that think if that old man looks like he’s walking, basically, sprinting to the finish, looking like he’s walking? If he can do it, I can do it.”
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