Nancy Goldstein's doctor laughed as he looked at the X-ray of the leg that had caused her so much pain. He told her she shouldn't feel badly about finishing among the slowest of thousands of runners in the recent TD Banknorth Beach to Beacon 10K.

She should feel good. She undoubtedly had the fastest time of anyone running with a broken leg.

Goldstein laughed, too. All her crying was behind her.

I met Nancy and her 16-year-old son Matt at the finish line that morning 10 days ago. My assignment was to talk to the some of the last of the 5,612 runners finishing more than an hour behind winner Ed Muge of Kenya. Matt had one arm around his mother. His other hand held a small box of doughnut holes given to him by his sister, Nicole, standing at the entrance to Fort Williams Park.

That's what caught my attention. Who would carry doughnut holes across the finish line?

Nancy Goldstein had enlisted her son, a cross country runner at Falmouth High, to run with her. She had an accident with her new bike only a month earlier. Bruises and maybe some nerve damage were the extent of those injuries, or so she was told. X-rays taken at the time revealed no fractures, but a month later she still hurt and feared she wouldn't make it to this year's starting line.

Nancy Goldstein is one of the dwindling number of runners who have run every Beach to Beacon race since its inception in 1998. So determined to get a number for this year's race, she had three computers working when registration opened.

She's been a runner for nearly 30 years and competes in marathon relays. This summer, her finishing position and her time were not as important as simply finishing.

"We don't run faster. We do run longer," she said that day at the finish line, a quotation I used. I mistook the tear tracks on her face for sweat.

Her husband Paul e-mailed me Sunday. It was an FYI message to fill in the gaps and say how proud he was of his wife and son. He should be.

Nancy was in trouble at the starting line. A stab of pain went up her left leg for every step she took.

"I saw the tears running down her face," said Matt. "I was nervous."

That's because he's an EMT in Falmouth and understood the ramifications. If she were a stranger, he would have told her to stop and get off that leg. But she wasn't a stranger.

"My mom stands for perseverance. She's more determined than anyone I've met," said Matt. "She wanted to continue; I told her we'd go at her pace."

The halfway mark at 3.1 miles was the point of no return. Nancy told her son the pain couldn't get worse and she could handle it. At 3 miles, Matt believed since she had come this far, he would do everything he could to see her through the last 3.1 miles.

"He'd say, 'Maybe if you limp like this,' " said Nancy, laughing. "That didn't work either. We'd catch people going uphill and I thought I could really jog going downhill because it would feel better. It felt worse.

"Matt pretty much had to carry me up that hill (to and through the park entrance to the finish). He was such a good sport about it. Most 16- or 17-year-old kids don't always take that attitude."

As a family tradition, Matt and his mother go on holiday runs. He started running Beach to Beacon when he was 12. A junior at Falmouth, he'll rejoin the cross country team later this fall. A cyst near his ankle will require surgery.

After she crossed the finish line, Nancy went to the medical tent. She got an ice pack for her leg. Three days later she saw her doctor, who didn't need a backlight to see the break on her X-ray. The hairline fracture on her fibula that was once undetectable was now very visible.

In a way, that's the good news. By running, Nancy exposed the break. She no longer has to wonder what was causing the pain in her leg.

"My doctor told me it's healing already," said Nancy. "Watch for me at next year's race."

Staff Writer Steve Solloway can be contacted at 791-6412 or at: ssolloway@pressherald.com