A powerful moment went viral last week showing two strangers hold hands as they cross the finish line at the Pittsburgh marathon after seven long hours.

Laura Mazur from Ohio and Jessica Robertson from Pennsylvania met halfway through the race when they realized that they were both in last place. The two were both scared of the long distance that they had left in the 26.2 mile race, so they vowed to run the rest of it together.

“I looked back to see if I was the last one and found another racer and a new friend,” Laura wrote on Facebook. “I told her I’d stay with her if she stayed with me.”

Though the two were closely followed by the sweep car, which picks up runners who can’t finish the race, the two refused to give up. This was Laura’s twelfth marathon while it was Jessica’s first.

Daniel Heckert, a runner who had already finished the marathon, snapped a photo of the pair as they finally crossed the finish line.

“I just ran over to grab my phone as they were coming,” he said. “I just wanted to capture the moment that showed these two ladies were going to finish the same race that [the] winner did.”

Jessica took to Facebook afterwards to describe the marathon as “an accomplishment I know I’ll never forget.” and to call Laura a “life-long friend.”

“It wasn’t about gender, it wasn’t about race, it wasn’t about religion – none of that mattered,” Jessica said. “We were just two individuals, two humans, who had a goal in mind and we leaned on each other to get there.”

Find out more about this in the video below.