A youth pastor died after rounding one of the miles of the Portland Marathon on Sunday.
Treyton “Trey” Lara, 24, reportedly collapsed just before mile 20 of the marathon, right after slowing down briefly to give his wife, Audrey Shin-Lara, a kiss between miles 18 and 19.
“He ran over, was able to give me a kiss, was smiling, and then ran off,” she told local Portland news outlet KGW-TV. “He looked good. And then so I drove off to the finish line, where the rest of our family and friends were going to watch him finish.”
Audrey, 24, had been moving with him the entire race. She first stopped to cheer him on at mile 10, then mile 14, then mile 18, and was headed to the end to celebrate all together.
The now-grieving wife said Trey had been training for months and showed no signs of distress of health issues at all, describing running as something her husband did to “relax and release.”
Soon after loading into the car to head to the finish line, Audrey said her mother-in-law called her, telling her Trey had collapsed around mile 20 and that first responders were performing CPR on him. He was transported to a nearby hospital but, by that point, doctors said it was too late.
“We’re all still in a little bit of shock,” said Audrey. “We tried going to bed and we’re like, ‘We’re gonna wake up and it’ll be a really bad dream. And he’ll be right there.'”
While they were married for just under five years, Audrey told reporters they first met one another at 12 years old. She called her late husband “one of one.”
“We met at a summer camp,” she remembered. “He saw me, and I guess he told his friends and even his best friend’s mom, he said, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry.’ And I didn’t actually believe it, but now I want to believe it.”
Camp was clearly a major theme in the Laras’ lives.
The couple had just launched a youth summer camp of their own, Camp Genesis, this past summer.
“[I]t was just this dream that he had,” Audrey said of the nascent ministry. “He was the biggest dreamer but it wasn’t just like, ‘I’m going to do this,’ but he’s like, ‘I will do this,’ and we got it done.”
Loved ones set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money as the family walks through this difficult time. The account describes Trey as a man whose “confidence was unshakable and his faith unwavering.”
“His faith was his defining feature,” it states. “It has spoken the loudest to those who knew him, whether they spent years with him, months with him, or even just a single day. They recognized that Trey’s faith and passion for advancing the Kingdom of God were at the center of his life.”
“He was devoted to his family and friends,” it continues. “He loved his wife, Audrey, from the moment he met her. His sisters, Jaylah and Sylvia, had the best role model in an older brother, and his parents, Omar and Misty, had the most devoted son. The man Trey became directly reflected the values they instilled in him.”
The purpose of the campaign, it notes, is to provide for Audrey’s immediate needs in the wake of her husband’s death.
Please pray for the Laras and all those impacted by this loss.
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