catfish Host Nev Schulman is an avid runner who has won several New York City Marathons. But a bad cycling accident on August 5 left him with a broken neck and his dreams of running the race for a seventh time in question. This did not stop him from making a miraculous recovery.
Schulman will run this year's marathon on Nov. 3, less than three months after breaking his neck. But he won't do this alone; He is registered as a blind runner guide through the International Achilles Foundation for his friend, elite para-triathlete Francesco Magisano.
The TV host opened up about her road to recovery and her preparations for this year's race in a new interview. People.
“About two weeks after the accident, he texted me: 'How are you feeling?' I said, 'I feel terrible and you should probably look for a new guide,'” Schulman recalled. “He said, 'Nev, I'm not going to find a new guide. Take your time, get better. And I don't care how fast or slow we go, I really want you to be my guide.' And honestly, that was a very inspiring part of my recovery process.”
Magisano's attitude pushed him to run again as quickly as possible. “I'm in a tailspin. I'm lying in bed. I'm miserable for a million reasons. And for the first time I think: 'Okay, wait a second. Maybe if he trusts me there might be a chance,'” she said.
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Schulman shocked his doctors and nurses when he began wandering around the intensive care unit just three days after the accident. “I knew how lucky I was and it gave me a lot of hope,” she said. Still, as he rested at home for weeks, he could feel his hours of training going to waste.
“I kept thinking, 'All this hard work I've been doing is just kind of fading away,'” he said. “But I also realized that I had to be patient and that this little bit of time I took to let my body heal was more important than anything else.”
“I need to move my body for my own mental health,” she added. “In my 30s, I discovered that running was the best medicine for my happiness. It was a huge relief for me and really gave me a huge surge of energy and optimism.”
With just eight weeks left until the race, Schulman and Magisano managed to get in shape for the big day.
“My body has really bounced back,” she said. “The first few runs were obviously tough, I was going at a much slower pace than I normally go and working a lot harder than I normally do. But once I got the momentum going, by the third or fourth run I really felt strong again. “I'm not 100 per cent but I feel great to be honest. “
Schulman and Magisano hit the streets for the New York Marathon on November 3.