Marine Runs on Resilience

Can you tell me about your sporting background?

While the physical scars have faded, the psychological damage is still there. July 6, 2023, is a date etched into the life of Marine G., who was 24 at the time. Since January, she had been working for an American company in New York on an 18-month contract. Curious and eager to discover the country, she spent her free time travelling. At the beginning of July, she was in Austin, Texas, with some friends. “They went off to play tennis, and I decided to walk around the neighbourhood. It wasn’t very nice, and I considered turning back, but I carried on,” Marine recalls, her voice thick with emotion. She remembers every tiny detail, after going over the incident countless times during the trial. At an intersection by a parking-lot exit, she saw a large American SUV emerge. In a split second, the driver’s inattention saw her hit by the front door, thrown to the ground and run over by the vehicle. “I was wearing a dress, and I can still see the tyre mark on it,” she says. “I remember the sound of my bones breaking.”

 Running is my life. It would be a disaster if I couldn’t get the use of my legs back. You have to do everything you can to make things better.  

It took enormous courage to endure the interminable wait in hospital, in a country whose language she did not speak and where her family was not there for her.

The injuries were serious: fractured ribs and vertebrae, a pneumothorax, external and internal bruising, and above all, uncertainty over whether she would ever be able to run again. Unthinkable for the young woman from Charente-Maritime, who had always run with her family and already had three marathons under her belt. Before the two surgeons began the six-hour operation, she told them: “Running is my life. It would be a disaster if I couldn’t get the use of my legs back. You have to do everything you can to make things better”. The operation involved removing fragments of vertebrae pressing on her ligaments and fitting screws and plates in her back to fuse her spine. “I’ll live with this for the rest of my life. I’ve lost a lot of mobility in my lower back,” Marine says.

Getting back up, whatever it takes

Rehabilitation begins. Because of the pneumothorax, she cannot fly and has to remain in Austin for a month. Day after day, she learns to become independent again. By mid-September, she is walking with crutches and tells her physio that she wants to honour her bib for the New York City Marathon in November. He listens and supports her in this extraordinary project. “The doctors were sceptical, but they said I was lucky to be athletic and a non-smoker. That contributed enormously to my recovery,” the expat recalls. 

Three hours of walking a day

In the gym attached to her building, she settles into a strict routine: 90 minutes of treadmill walking in the morning and another 90 minutes in the afternoon. Every day, she records her progress in a notebook, which gives her the courage to keep going and not give up. “Of course, there were days when I was tired and didn’t feel like it, but I had only one thing on my mind: being on the marathon start line!” Those three months of training take her towards her goal. With her doctors’ approval, she joins the crowds of athletes who have come to make a dream a reality. After 4:22 of effort, Marine crosses the finish line in an avalanche of emotion. It takes her time to process the physical and mental toll.

Paris, her return to France

Marine pampers her body and learns to reconnect with it, all the while holding on to her marathon dreams. “It took me two years to get back to my original level”, says the young woman in a calm but still determined voice. April 13, 2025, will feel like a new beginning for her. “I’m running it with friends, and being part of all that excitement allows me to feel like I did before the accident: normal. It’s my big return to France, in Paris, a city where I’ve been living for the past few months,” says Marine, who is targeting 3:50 for her fifth marathon and certainly not her last.