When Ali Truwit crossed the end line at the Copenhagen Marathon in 2023, she couldn’t have imagined how laborious it will be to run the 26.2-mile distance once more.
Just 10 days later, she was bitten by a shark whereas snorkeling in Turks and Caicos and, though she was fortunate to flee together with her life, her left foot and the decrease a part of her leg have been misplaced in the assault.
But at the New York City Marathon in 2025, Truwit finished one other marathon, finishing the most exceptional comeback from a devastating physical and psychological trauma.
“I’m over the moon,” she exclaimed to NCS in an interview the subsequent day, “I’m definitely feeling the race a little bit, but still feeling on top of the world.”
Anyone who’s ever run a marathon will let you know about the grueling nature of the problem, however few may think about having to take away their leg a number of occasions all through the race.
“Still feels crazy to say,” she mentioned, explaining that the sweat was making her prosthetic limb slip on her leg.
After one such cease, Truwit posted a video to her Instagram story of her bouncing up and down at the aspect of the highway to place her prosthetic again on. Another problem was her incapacity to really feel the floor beneath her, notably round the 5 bridges alongside the iconic route.
“Learning how to do it without an ankle, which is typically how you adjust for the incline and decline, was totally new,” she mentioned, noting that it was additionally laborious to not slip on all the water and discarded cups round the hydration stations each mile. “There were a lot of nuances to navigate with a blade.”
Since that fateful day in May 2023, Truwit’s journey has been exceptional and inspirational. A aggressive swimmer at Yale University, she mentioned that getting again into the water triggered flashbacks of the assault, however inside simply 16 months she’d conquered her concern to win two silver medals at the Paralympics in Paris.
In New York, she reclaimed extra of her life, working alongside her former teammate Sophie Pilkinton and one other 13 household and mates – the folks who saved her life and helped her to rebuild it. Pilkinton was there from the begin, serving to to struggle off the shark and swim again to the boat the place she utilized a life-saving tourniquet; now Truwit says they’re like sisters.
“We have an incredibly special bond,” Truwit mentioned. “To come through a shark attack like that and survive together and save each other, to be running a marathon side by side, step by step, it’s just such a testament to her support and our friendship. Truly something I’m going to cherish for the rest of my life.”
Truwit says that every stage of her restoration has been difficult, however in several methods.
“Swimming was hard because of the traumatic memories I had associated with the water, (but) I don’t swim with my prosthetic, whereas with running I have to use that prosthetic to help me get where I want to go,” she instructed NCS Sports.
“And that’s a big challenge, you know, navigate the swelling and all of those frustrations. Running is physically harder; swimming was emotionally harder.”
Despite her apparent triumphs, Truwit says that she’s nonetheless recovering from the assault, she’s nonetheless a piece in progress.
“Grief comes in waves,” she laments. “I grieve different things at different times. I’ve made a lot of progress on my healing journey, and I think there’s still a-ways to go.”
Many have requested if she had the energy to return and rewrite her historical past, would she?
“Not to have my life as an amputee would have been easier,” she defined. “I wish it hadn’t happened, but I’m really thankful that I now have this opportunity and platform to impact other people too.”
Truwit and her entourage ran New York in blue T-shirts with the identify of her charity, “Stronger Than You Think,” stamped in white letters on the again. By the finish of the day, they’d raised $220,000. Throughout the race, she glanced at the dwelling display of her cellphone, a patchwork of the 9 ladies and women that she has helped to seek out their very own prosthetic limbs.
“I was really shocked at how expensive prosthetics are and how little insurance covers relative to what’s needed,” she mentioned. “These prosthetics are our mobility, our quality of life, our ability to go back to our careers and families and passions, so I wanted to do something about it. It’s been the most healing work for me to take this bad thing and use it for good. Our recipients give me hope and inspiration and joy, and it really was a goal for me, to not just give the prosthetics, but to create community and friendship and support among us.”
Truwit’s optimistic angle is infectious, she’s in a position to recall the most terrible second of her life with a smile and the social media movies documenting a painful restoration depict a joyful younger girl; it’s as if the expertise of being so near loss of life has infused her with a brand new love of life.
“I’ve been given a second chance,” she defined, “I came face to face with that almost not being my reality. You want to live life fully and beautifully and joyfully. Of course, there’s hard moments, I just kind of believe that smiling tricks my brain a little bit, even when I’m in pain or things are hard, I smile to send my body the message, I’m so grateful to be alive right now and I know what a privilege that is.”