[IvyMike]

I've never run a marathon, but I've attended several supporting runners I knew. I spent my time at the finish line watching the runners come across.

Pretty much everyone who finishes is some level of fucked up. Their body chemistry is way-the-hell out of whack, with problems from dehydration, hyponatremia, glycogen depletion, and boosted or dampened immune system reactions. Usually there are people at the finish looking for trouble cases and shunting them directly to the medical tent. (Because the runner might not even recognize that how bad a state they are in.)

I've had hyponatremia once after an ill-advised hike, and I literally couldn't form sentences out loud.

It doesn't surprise me that people weren't reacting in a normal way, because they weren't in a normal state of being.

[pvaldes]

Most people simply don't know how to react in a situation like this. Is normal to do silly things when normal people is inmersed in an emergency. Some people take photos standing in the way to the exit, others flee away in the wrong direction creating a risk of stampede, most not trained people (and even some of the trained people) do exactly the type of things that you should not to do... is pretty habitual.