The training partners of a man who died in during an obstacle race over the weekend gathered Monday night to remember him at the Irving recreation center where he participated in a twice-a-week boot camp.
Tony Weathers, 30, died while participating in the Original Mud Run in Fort Worth.
"If it is this hard for us, it has got to be excruciating for the family," said Weathers' personal trainer, Lynetta Moore. "Just keep them in your prayers, please."
Weathers, an elite athlete who could run a mile in less than five minutes, never made it across the finish line of Saturday's event.
"I knew he was supposed to be there, and an hour passed, then an hour and 30 minutes, and I started to suspect that something was wrong," said Tim Munetsi, Weathers' training partner.
Weather's body was recovered in the Trinity River early Sunday morning.
Some participants are questioning the organizers of the Original Mud Run.
"Everyone around us was drowning," Mia Walters said in a YouTube video. "They left far too many people in the water."
"The only thing I saw were crying, panic-stricken people around me, and all I could feel was people grabbing at me because they're so scared they were drowning," she said in the video.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
In home video that was recorded along the course, swimmers can be heard screaming for lifeguards.
Event organizers said four lifeguards were assigned to the river crossing.
"With any of our obstacles that involve river crossings or swimming, we provide alternate routes, swim-assist devices, guide ropes, floating platforms and certified lifeguards," said Eric Lindberg, Original Mud Run spokesman.
"I don't know about his swimming skills, but he said he could swim, and we had talked about it," Munetsi said.
The medical examiner is waiting for toxicology results before ruling on a cause of death. Toxicology results are expected in six to eight weeks.
"There is no way his competitiveness caused this," said Tameka Adams, a member of the boot camp. "It had to be something that what wrong. He was just the strongest person I knew."
Weathers, better known to his training partners as "Weatherman," was the first person to die in the mud run's 14-year history.
