COURAGE WINS
Qns. gal’s marathon triumph after attack
It took more than 11 hours for Hannah Gavios to complete the New York Marathon Sunday — but she was the biggest winner.
The Queens native, who fractured her spine after falling from a cliff in Thailand while escaping a rapist, gutted out the 26.2-mile, five-borough course on crutches, triumphantly crossing the finish line in Central Park just after 8 p.m.
She was stunned by the crowd of well-wishers waiting for her long after the sun had gone down.
“I didn’t expect this many people,” Gavios, 25, said, shaking with fatigue and crying.
“It just shows my city has my back. My city is awesome, waiting for me here — I don’t know how long everyone waited for me — it just means so much to me that you guys stayed. Thank you.”
Two weeks ago, Gavios told The Post that she was partici- pating in the event because “I’m going to be a functioning human — I don’t want to feel like I’m left behind.’’
After the marathon — which she finished in 11:20:32 — she said that her main thought as she competed was “just getting through pain.”
She said she was running to raise money for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which the late “Superman’’ actor and his wife, also since deceased, started after he became a quadriplegic when he fell from a horse.
Gavios was severely injured and left partially paralyzed during a horrifying encounter with a would-be rapist in Thailand in 2016. She fled in the dark and tumbled off a 150-foot cliff.
On Sunday, she joined more than 51,000 marathoners from around the world at the starting point on Staten Island.
A close friend of slain NYPD Sgt. Paul Tuozzolo was also among the runners. AnneMarie Dunn, 37, was wearing a bib featuring the precinct and badge number of Tuozzolo, who was shot and killed on duty in The Bronx in 2016, two years to the day before the marathon. She finished in 3:52:36.
NYPD Sgt. Timothy Dowling was the first department cop to finish the race this year, with a time of 2:58:9.
Former “Desperate Housewives’’ star Teri Hatcher also ran, with her 20-year-old daughter, Emerson Tenney.
Hatcher finished in 5:51:21, with her daughter five seconds behind.
Former Giants running back Tiki Barber finished in 4:44:47.
“I’m going to take a shower, then go get some beers,” Barber said after he crossed the finished line. “And maybe a big hamburger.”