Utah mom Courtney Rich shares touching moment with daughter who joins in for home stretch of Salt Lake City marathon

In a very touching moment, a Utah mother got help from her 10-year-old daughter to make it to the finish line of a marathon. 

Instagram influencer and self-taught baker Courtney Rich shared a video of her struggling to finish the Salt Lake City marathon when Avery joined in at mile 24 and ran with her. 

The video shows Avery jumping in, holding her mom's hand, running alongside till the finish line.

 'A moment I hope neither of us forget. She knew I had struggled the last few miles. She heard tears in my eyes when I called on mile 24.' Courtney wrote on social media along with the video.

'Nothing could have prepared me for the moment my 10-year-old daughter would jump out of the crowd and run me in to the finish line.

'And then she held me. She held me.'

'It took me a split second to realize that oh that's Avery, running with me in Crocs on the course with me. As soon as I held her hand, any pain I had disappeared in that moment,' Courtney Rich said

The video shows Rich's face turning from exhaustion to a big smile as her daughter runs with her. 

Talking about the moment she felt she wasn't going to be able to finish the marathon, Courtney told CNN: 'When I can feel my legs slowing down and I think some of those tears were of "shoot I'm going to disappoint my kids."'

'It took me a split second to realize that oh that's Avery, running with me in Crocs on the course with me,' Courtney said, later adding, 'As soon as I caught Avery's hand, in that moment any pain I had in my legs it felt like it disappeared.'

Avery also told CNN: 'I was thinking that I love my mom, I'm doing this for my mom and she needs it. So, I have to do this.'

The 10-year-old said she saw another young girl finish with her mom, and thought that she could help as her mom was struggling more than that family. That's when she joined in and grabbed her mom's hand. 

'She just smiled and finished the race off with her best friend,' Avery said. 

Social media posts showed an exhausted mom hugging her daughter and thanking her for helping in the home stretch.  

The video shows Avery jumping in, holding her mom's hand, running alongside until they reach the finish line 

'I was thinking that I love my mom, I'm doing this for my mom and she needs it. So, I have to do this,' Avery said

Courtney started baking when she was 26 and baked her first cake for her son's birthday. Since then, she has her own podcast, an Instagram page with nearly 550,000 followers and has a website called Cake by Courtney

The annual marathon is run in Salt Lake City, Millcreek and Holladay, Utah. The race begins at the Olympic Legacy Bridge at the University of Utah, goes through the center of Salt Lake City and concludes at Library Square. 

Events include a full marathon, half marathon, bike tour, 5K run/walk, 10K run/walk, 10K skate, Kids K, para-athletes full marathon and para-athletes half marathon. 

In addition to Courtney running marathons, she is a well-known baker who shares her passion on social media.  

Courtney started baking when she was 26 and baked her first cake for her son's birthday. Since then, she has her own podcast, an Instagram page with nearly 550,000 followers and has a website called Cake by Courtney. 

She also shares posts with her daughter - her best friend- and recently shared a post of the two at Avery's first concert, the Taylor Swift eras tour. Courtney compared it to taking kids to Disneyland for the first time. 

'I'm not sure what was more fun - watching Taylor on stage or watching Avery in the audience singing and dancing to every single song,' the proud mom wrote.