What's even more impressive is that Sergeant Mike Nowacki took part in the annual Hot Chocolate Run Sunday in full SWAT gear.
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Near the finish line, he spotted an unresponsive woman on the ground. Nowacki started giving CPR until paramedics arrived.
"About 150 yards south of the finish line I hear people screaming medic, medic," he recalled. "It was definitely a serendipitous moment because if I had run a little bit slower or a little bit faster I would have never encountered the young lady."
Police said the woman suffered a cardiac arrest. Doctors said the sergeant's quick response helped save her life. The woman is expected to make a full recovery.
That was all part of a day's work, but the real task came shortly after the race.
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"Mostly what I was trying to do as I finished the race was come up with something good to say and I was totally thrown off by having to perform CPR," Nowacki said.
Sergeant Nowacki proposed to his girlfriend, Erin Gubala, another Chicago police officer.
"He's sweating and I wanted to talk to him about what happened down the way, find out more information, and then he got down on one knee and I thought that he was hurt and then he just said, 'Erin, I don't know what to say' and then I realize what was going on," Gubala recalled.
She said yes on a day that neither will ever forget.