Woman overcomes near-death accident to run Boston Marathon again

Running marathons is definitely a passion for Rachel Foster.

“I ran the Boston marathon in 23, and then another marathon in Texas a couple of months after that, and then another marathon in Minnesota,” said Foster.

But in 2023, running marathons was the least of her concerns after she blacked out while riding her scooter.

“I basically took the entire brunt of the fall on my head and on the left side of my body,” said Foster.

Doctors had done all they could do and discussed taking her off the respirator with her husband, John. However, when the doctors turned off the respirator, John told her to breathe, and she did. Rachel would have to relearn every aspect of life, including how to walk. Motivated by her will to run again and her love for her husband, John.

“This guy, this guy is my pillar. You are,” said Foster.

Since the accident, Rachel has run many marathons, including the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.

“This might be my fourth or fifth. I’ve run the memorial marathon many times,” said Foster.

Rachel and John are currently in Boston, where earlier this week she ran in the Boston marathon again, but first she had to qualify in Minnesota’s marathon, and that would have some challenges.

“I did have a foot injury, but I thought it wasn’t that big of a deal. I’ll still run it. Everything is going to be great,” said Foster.

But about halfway through, she realized that maybe the injury was worse than she thought.

“That was the first marathon that I did not finish. I bowed out before I finished at mile 18,” said Foster.

Not being able to qualify for the Boston Marathon was heartbreaking.

“I was down and out, I was kind of down and out at that point, just really bummed,” said Foster.

“And two days later, we got a call,” said John Foster, Rachel’s husband. 

The call was from Dick’s Sporting Goods, a sponsor of the Boston marathon, asking Rachel to run the marathon on their team.

“And I jumped it like, excuse me, yes,” said Foster.

“My time was three forty-nine and fourteen seconds,” said Foster.

With that race over, it’s now on to bigger things. Much bigger things.

“There has been a crew that has been working on a documentary about Rachel, so they were actually up here filming as well during the race,” said John Foster.

Foster hopes others will be inspired through her story.

“I just want to encourage people that life is hard, darkness will happen, life is hard, but don’t stay in the darkness,” said Foster.

While on the plane back from Boston, Foster made the decision to run in this year’s memorial marathon.