A Kentucky teen defied the odds to complete the Chicago Marathon less than a year after a devastating spinal injury left him briefly paralyzed from the neck down.
Wyatt Anderson, 17, crossed the finish line of the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Sunday in a time of 3:56:28 — just months after he feared he might never walk again, ABC News reported.
Last November, the high school senior was shooting hoops with friends when he tripped over his own feet going for a rebound and slammed headfirst into a wall, he said.
The impact was so severe that it fractured his spine and left him unable to move.
“I blacked out right after for a little bit, and I couldn’t move any limb on my body,” Anderson told the outlet.
The 17-year-old then underwent spinal fusion surgery, followed by months of rehab as he relearned how to walk.
“Every single day, it was in the back of my head, I was like, ‘Am I gonna walk again? Am I gonna be able to do the same thing that I was doing two weeks ago, a day ago?’” he said.
Then one of his rehab therapists told him an inspiring story about a man who completed 50 marathons in 50 states in a year while in a wheelchair.
“That just, like, blew my mind and motivated me,” he said.
As he slowly regained movement over weeks of physical therapy, the teen said that story inspired him to not only get better — but “to walk or run a marathon within a year.”
Anderson said there were times when it didn’t seem like things “would get better,” but he reminded himself that “every day is a step forward” and to “just say yes to every opportunity.”
In April, he finished the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon, a 13.1-mile race, Spectrum News reported in July.
But the half marathon was just a warm-up for his true goal — completing the Chicago Marathon.
When Anderson set off from the starting line alongside his brother, Jack Anderson, on Sunday, he aimed not only to finish the race but to inspire others.
“I hope my story will help other people want to set a lofty goal for themselves and to believe that nothing’s impossible,” he told ABC News.
“[You] can do anything if you set your mind to it — truly, I mean, coming from someone who couldn’t walk at a time and now is running.”
The brothers also ran to raise money for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which supports research, advocacy and resources for people living with spinal cord injuries, according to ABC News.
Together, they raised more than $24,000, according to the foundation’s website.
