Relief organizations such as World Vision reported that many runners had exchanged their sneakers for work boots, working with the organization to deliver food kits. 

"I could have sat in the hotel room. I could have gone sight-seeing, and probably would have still felt pretty empty," said Tim Fearn-Wannan, who traveled from Melbourne, Australia, for the race.

"But this is a good feeling that there are people out there in a pretty bad situation at the moment and we're doing our small part to help out with that."