Tony Nogueiri fell out of a tree in the summer of 1987. The fall left him paralyzed, but he refused to let it keep him down. ‘I turned to wheelchair racing,’ said Nogueiri, 33, from Glen Ridge, N.J., who won the wheelchair division of the UPMC Health System/City of Pittsburgh Marathon on Sunday. ‘It has helped me deal with my disability. It has been a second chance for me.’ Nogueiri has competed on this 26.2-mile course eight times with his best finish as runner-up. So a victory yesterday at 1 hour 49 minutes and 3 seconds was great. ‘I was glad to finally get first,’ he said. ‘I made a decision early on to push myself. So I put my head down and raised my pace. This is such a challenging course.’ Nogueiri said the roads on the course were smooth which is a concern for all runners, but especially for wheelchair racers who must swerve to avoid potholes. ‘There are lots of turns and hills on this course which make it interesting, but which also can make it dangerous,’ said Nogueiri, who had a flat tire last year which knocked him out of the race. ‘We have to realize our racing wheelchairs are like machines.’ CHARITY PREVAILS Don Splitstone, a Mt. Oliver resident, accepted the General Nutrition Center Pro Performance Challenge for Charity. He agreed to start the marathon dead last, and for every runner he passed, GNC donated $1 to Allegheny County Special Olympics. Splitstone finished with a time of 3:14.21 and passed 2,359 runners. GNC added a couple extra dollars and donated $2,700 to the charity, the approximate number of marathon runners. Splitstone’s personal motivation for running was to honor his mother, Diane, was diagnosed with Leukemia last May, has undergone chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant. LOVE AND RUNNING Michelle and Dennis Simonaitis of Draper, Utah have been married for six years. They have built their marriage around a passion for the sport. She finished sixth among the women in the marathon with a time of 2:50.46 while her husband ran the course in 2:24.41 and 11th place. MAN OF STEEL Dennis Chipollini, of suburban Philadelphia, finished yesterday’s 26.2-mile course with a time of 5:55.38. That’s impressive for a guy who was told he would never walk again after he lost his left leg in car accident 11 years ago and must wear a prosthesis. A LONG WALK NOT SPOILED An estimated 50 individuals trained specifically to walk this year’s marathon. They were part of a program sponsored by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. MINIMAL MEDICAL COVERAGE Cool temperatures and low humidity made for only three runners being taken to area hospitals. Of the 5,657 participants in all the race events, three were transported to area hospitals, 12 runners dropped out and 153 total were treated. BY THE NUMBERS Yesterday’s Pittsburgh Marathon was the second-highest attended race with 5,657 participants, 2,839 of which were marathoners, 468 teams in the Mellon Relay, 938 5K runners and seven wheelchair individuals.

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)