Nearing the finish line of Sunday’s Great Race, Nathan Blume suddenly fell down. While the moments that followed remain somewhat fuzzy, he remembers running shoulder to shoulder with the two other racers who helped carry him to the finish line.

“I was feeling really good, although I kind of knew I was pushing myself a little too far,” said Blume, 44, a composer who lives in Squirrel Hill. “At the end there, I just went downhill very fast. And I do remember the fall. I do remember those guys picking me up and taking me across the finish line.”

After time spent in the medical tent near the finish, Blume has fully recovered, but the feelings of camaraderie and community offered by those two strangers — Robert Tessler, a colorectal surgeon at UPMC, and Lyubomyr Pinchuk, a professional boxer

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