Name: Mary Bryant. Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio. Best Running Time: 4:51 Worst: 9:15:27 Time of Winning Female: 2:25:56 When not running, she's: modeling, advocating for breast cancer awareness and people with disabilities. Philosophy::"You can do it!"

ary Bryant has the dubious distinction of being the slowest person in New York. She finished behind 31,830 people in the 2002 New York City Marathon last November with a time of 9 hours, 15 minutes, and 27 seconds. The fastest female made the 26-mile trek in just two hours and 25 minutes. Three runners from other states or countries finished behind her; however, Bryant was the slowest New Yorker in the race. But she doesn't mind a bit.

Bryant could have run faster--her time in her first marathon, in 1994, was a respectable 4:51--but she said she believes there are more important things than going fast. Instead, in the 2002 marathon, she accompanied her friend Bill Reilly, an athlete with cerebral palsy who pushed himself backwards in his wheelchair all the way to the finish line. Her friends advised her against running alongside Reilly, urging her to enjoy herself at her own pace, but she stayed by his side.

"It's not about being a star," Bryant said of the marathon. "It's about sticking through to the very end, not giving up on Billy and running off doing my own thing. That, to me, is what it is all about."

This is not the first time Bryant, a Ford model and a motivational speaker, has been slow on purpose. She first tried running in 1994 to lose weight. As a model, she was constantly under pressure to thin down. After a few blocks, though, she was out of breath and discouraged; she began to think that she wasn't made to run. But then she thought about her brother, Don Supinski, who had been paralyzed from the neck down since he was 16. Supinski couldn't run or walk "or scratch his nose," as Bryant put it, even if he wanted to. She could run, however--she just didn't want to.

"I was standing on the corner of 56th and Eighth Avenue when it was like this brick came and hit me in the head that said, 'Wait a minute, you can run,'" she said. "I called him back in Ohio, saying, 'Don, I'm going to run, for you and for me, because I can.'"

Bryant with brother Don Supinski.

So in 1994, Bryant ran her first marathon, wearing a T-shirt with her brother's picture on it. She finished in four hours and fifty one minutes. She continued to train, and the next year she shaved eleven minutes off her time.

In 1997, Bryant and her brother competed in the race together, with Supinski pushing his head into the headrest of his motored chair to propel it. He never had to be pushed, making him the first "runner" without use of his arms or legs to complete the full 26.2 miles of the marathon. It took them six and a half hours.

"So many people feel the pressure of, 'Got to be first, got to be the best, got to be this,' that they don't even give themselves a shot," she said.

Bryant had turned into a runner, training 35 to 45 miles a week while modeling for a living. Then, in her thirties, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy and went back to work two weeks later; she ran her fourth marathon, in 1998, six days after a round of chemotherapy. This time it took her over seven hours, but she finished.

Bryant had intended to run the marathon with Diane Erickson, a friend who was also fighting breast cancer. Erickson wasn't healthy enough to participate, but told her friend after the race that running seemed to be helping Bryant through her treatment. Bryant agreed.

"I'm not going fast, but it puts me in charge," she told her friend.

Tortoise with a purpose.

The next year Bryant planned to push Erickson in her wheelchair. When Erickson protested that it would slow her down, Bryant told her, "It's not like I'm going to win!" But Erickson died in September, just weeks before the marathon. So Bryant paid her tribute the best way she knew how: she pushed a wheelchair filled with roses the entire marathon route. "It was like a parachute in the wind," she said; a wheel even came off during the race. It was the most physically challenging marathon for her to run. But she still finished, with her slowest time yet: 7:41.

By the time November rolled around in 2000, Bryant was feeling healthy and planned to get her time back down. This time, though, someone else needed her help. Her friend Pablo Morales, 21, who suffers from artrogoposy, wanted her to help him race his hand-crank wheelchair in the marathon, rather than use the powered chair as he had the last three years. She asked him to wait until the next year, but he said he wanted to try. "That's what got my heart," Bryant said. She helped him through the marathon, finishing after six hours and 14 minutes.

In 2001, Bryant ran the marathon alone, under extreme stress: her brother was in intensive care in a Cleveland hospital. She finished the race in just under five hours, and he died 36 hours later.

Last year, Bryant decided she didn't want to associate the marathon with death; she wanted a more enjoyable run. But she kept her promise to help Reilly. "I stuck with it, as painful as it was, because it's almost harder to run that slow," she said. They finished in the dark, with marathon officials closing the course after them.

Bryant doesn't mind her slow finishing time. In fact, she laughs about it. "There's a good talk in that one," she said, referring to her motivational speaking. She's slow, but, she reasoned, at least she's helping the friends she runs with and the people she encourages with her story. "It's inspirational, if anything else."

She also helps out with the Achilles Track Club, an organization for runners with disabilities. "Sometimes it's not always about being the fastest," she said. "Sometimes it's about getting over that finish line."

Not
So Fast,
Lloyd!
The Unofficial Slowest Runner of the New York City Marathon

Lloyd Scott of London claims to be the slowest runner in last year's New York City Marathon, finishing the 26.5-mile November race in five days.

But the New York Road Runners Club, which organizes the annual run, said not so fast. Amy Desautels, spokeswoman for the club, said that Scott is not an official finisher, since it took him too long to run the course. The Road Runners Club usually closes the race 10 hours after the kickoff; those who cross the finish line after the clocks have been turned off are not officially recognized as finishers.

Scott's running gear had something to do with his slow prowl. He ran the marathon donning a 130-pound antique deep-sea diver's suit topped by a 40-pound helmet.

However slow Scott's pace might have been, it was for a good cause. His goal was to raise funds for families of the Fire Fighters of New York City. He walked the entire marathon route, staying at FDNY firehouses along the way.

Not bad for somebody who used to suffer from leukemia and underwent a hip replacement last year.