Rachel Apa, a 24-year-old graduate student at Charleston Southern University, died Nov. 1 after collapsing near the 24-mile mark of the New York City Marathon, the university confirmed.

Apa, a Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, native who began her master's degree at CSU in August, was running her first marathon to raise money for Parkinson's disease research in memory of her grandfather, who died from the disease in 2022.

Her father, Steve Apa, told the New York Times that the cause of death was rhabdomyolysis, a rare condition in which muscles break down and release harmful proteins into the bloodstream. The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner had not made a final determination on the cause of death as of the Los Angeles Times' reporting.

CSU President B. Keith Faulkner released a statement mourning Apa's death, according to ABC News 4. The university said she died as a result of rhabdomyolysis.

Apa had trained for months before the race. She ran as part of the Parkinson's Champions team, a fundraiser sponsored by the Parkinson's Foundation. Her original goal was $4,000. Donations surged past that amount after her death, according to Yahoo Sports.

On her fundraising page, Apa wrote about her grandfather's influence. He "taught me to stay active, push my limits, and embrace challenges, shaping my love for sports and movement," she wrote, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Later in life, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and I watched as the disease slowly took away the freedom to move that he once loved so much."

Steve Apa told multiple outlets he had been texting with his daughter during the race while tracking her progress on an app from home in Pennsylvania. Early in the race, she texted that she felt great. Around mile 18, her messages shifted to expressions of pain, according to E! Online. He stopped hearing from her around mile 20 or 21, the Los Angeles Times reported. Her progress on the app stopped at mile 24.

Apa collapsed in Central Park at about 1:33 p.m. Bystanders, including two people who said they were physicians, performed CPR, according to Yahoo Sports, which cited the New York Times. Event medical staff continued CPR and used a defibrillator. Paramedics transported Apa to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where doctors worked for more than six hours to save her. She was declared dead at about 9:40 p.m., her father told the New York Times.

Before CSU, Apa played field hockey at Bucknell University, where she appeared in 63 games with 42 starts and scored 17 goals. She graduated in 2024 and was working as a product manager at TE Connectivity while pursuing her graduate degree.

Donations to Apa's Parkinson's Champions page far exceeded her $4,000 goal after news of her death spread, according to ESPN.