If you have ever run a marathon, and yes I have, at the 40km mark all you are thinking is to finish.
These guys compete at their own peril and are aware of the risks. I have run in marathons where people have been falling over left, right and centre. Stop to help someone, hell no, that what the medics are for.
Michael Shelley is a legend and he will be remembered by people who count, not by armchair critics who have probably never even run even for a bus.