Ecuadorian runner, 38, killed in hit & run during early morning training for her first marathon

A 38-year-old runner in Ecuador was training for her first marathon when she was struck by a truck in a hit-and-run accident early in the morning of Sep. 4.

She was reportedly the mother of two children.

Early morning training

Where is the Buzz reports that 38-year-old Monica Andrea Martinich Cohn, also identified as Monica Martinich, was running along the four-lane E40 highway outside of the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador.

A video of the incident shows the three runners were occupying the rightmost lane on the highway.

Ecuador drives on the right side of the road, meaning the runners were running in what might be expected to be the slowest-moving lane.

The incident occurred around 4:30 am on Sep. 4, and the sky was still very dark.

However, the street was well lit with bright LED lights, and the rightmost runner was wearing a bright neon yellow shirt with a blinking red light attached to his shorts.

The runners also had a pickup truck escorting them, moving slowly alongside while displaying its hazard lights.

The truck was in the second lane from the right, presumably to prevent cars from accidentally turning into the runners.

But unfortunately, the escort seems not to have been enough.

Hit and run

All of a sudden, a second truck moving at high speed appears from off-screen.

The truck appears to be trying to undertake the escort, with two vehicles in the third lane preventing it from going that way.

The second truck hits the leftmost runner, Martinich, while the other two runners jumped off the road onto the pavement.

The second truck did not stop and sped off, leaving Martinich’s body by the side of the road.

The Excelsior newspaper reported that the Ecuadorian Transport Commission declared Martinich dead on the scene.

The other two runners were not injured.

As the driver did not stop and attempt to render aid, the commission has classified the incident as a hit-and-run.

Training for her first marathon

Martinich was an avid amateur runner and belonged to a local running club.

She had participated in several half-marathons in Ecuador and the United States, and was training for her first marathon at the time.

A social media post for a local radio station paid tribute to her, saying that she had turned running into part of her life, and that her early morning run was a regular occurrence.

It said that Martinich’s death had hit the running community in the city of Guayaquil hard, especially those who also trained by running on roads in the early morning hours.

The incident sparked heated online discussion over the safety of runners training on roads before dawn.

Investigations are ongoing.