Wedding ring lost during New York City Marathon found with help of social media

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- A man who traveled all the way from Italy to run the TCS New York City Marathon lost his wedding ring in the race. What first seemed like a heartbreaking story ended happily.

Maurizio Martinoli, 36, flew in from Rome to run his first New York City marathon.

He finished the race in three hours and 12 minutes, only to discover to that his wedding ring was missing.

Maurizio says his hands were so numb and cold at one point that he clearly didn't feel the ring slip off his finger.

The odds of finding the small band of gold along 26 miles through five boroughs and millions of people...well, let's just say the odds were pretty slim. Still, he posted about it on the New York Road Runners Facebook page.

Enter Ornella Alexander, a volunteer from Brooklyn whose job was to pick up discarded heat sheets for recycling.

She found the ring in the post-finish-line race area where runners can change, then turned it in when dropping off her radio.

The happy reunion was posted on Facebook and got three times as many likes as the page for the marathon winners.

It turns out tough New Yorkers are a pretty sentimental bunch.

So Maurizio goes home with a medal and his precious gold ring, and he sent Alexander flowers as a token of thanks.