Sarah Sellers, the Boston Marathon runner-up, was virtually an unknown athlete right up until the point that she raced through the finish line minutes behind the winner.
A prestigious event such as the Boston Marathon draws elite runners from all corners of the globe, most of whom have dedicated countless hours to training.
With $150,000 in prize money for both the men's and women's winners and $75,000 available for second place in both categories, according to Forbes, competition was stiff this year.
There was little surprise when two-time Olympian, Desiree Linden, clinched the women's winning title and made history in the process as the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon since 1985, but it was the runner-up who stole the limelight Monday.
Sellers is a 26-year-old nurse from the U.S. who has only run one other marathon before, but she still managed to snap at Linden's heels for the entire 26.2-mile course of the Boston Marathon, ultimately finishing in a time of two hours, 44 minutes, four seconds.
Sellers does not have a strong social media presence and, according to BBC News, she ran the race without a sponsor or agent.
Her days are taken up by work at the Banner Health Centre in Arizona, and she wakes up at 4 a.m. to get her training in.
"I love working as a nurse anesthetist. It does make training a little bit challenging, but long term, I love both, and I wouldn’t want to give up working right now," Sellers said, according to the Boston Globe.
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