After overcoming an illness, Relly Ladner is ready to run the New York City Marathon.
She is one of the 26 runners part of the New York Road Runner’s “Team Inspire,” a group of athletes with “ the most compelling stories.”
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After overcoming an illness, Relly Ladner is ready to run the New York City Marathon
She is one of the 26 runners part of the New York Road Runner’s “Team Inspire”
In high school after playing soccer, her legs felt tingly. A few days later, she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder that can lead to paralysis
Doctors did not know if she was ever going to be able to walk again. She is now about to run three marathons
For Ladner, running the marathon is a 26.2-mile adventure and a way to explore the five boroughs.
“The energy in the city is like absolutely amazing,” Ladner told NY1. “It really brings out the best of people, whether it is the runners or the spectators.”
This is her third marathon. She has been an athlete for years.
Ladner went to boarding school with a goal to play soccer in college. By the end of her freshman year of high school, she was committed to Dartmouth College.
“So everything was like ideal. My whole life was planned out,” she said.
At the end of her junior year of high school, she was playing soccer with her club team when her legs started tingling.
“I thought it was like a hot day, like dehydrated, like tired from the heat,” Ladner said. “And then by the end of the game I couldn’t feel anything below my knees.”
She went to the hospital, where doctors ran tests on her legs, but the results were inconclusive.
“I went home that night, and the next morning I woke up and the bottoms of my feet were like a purple color. And I fell out of my bed. I couldn’t walk,” she said.
The next day, doctors ran more tests and figured out she had Guillain-Barre syndrome — a rare autoimmune disorder that can lead to paralysis.
“I wasn’t able to feel anything in my legs. So that was extremely scary to go from being so active to all of a sudden one day just not feeling anything,” she said. “At the time, the doctors had told me that they weren’t sure I was ever going to be able to walk again, let alone run and play soccer in college.”
Ladner had blood transfusions and months of physical therapy, and made it back on the field her senior year of high school.
“I really never took a day for granted,” she said.
Post-college, Ladner says needed a new goal, so she started running marathons.
Her first marathon was in Nashville, and she completed the New York City Marathon in under four hours last year.
As she prepares for her third marathon, she says the illness that sidelined her fuels her determination.
“When I’m running or even days when I’m like, haven’t even gotten out the door and I’m just struggling to find the motivation is remembering that only a couple of years ago, I was laying in a bed unsure if I would ever be able to walk again,” she said.
Ladner is raising money for an organization called Grassroots Soccer, which helps adolescents live healthier lives.
Another inspiration for Ladner is her grandfather, Joseph Boodin, who passed away in the spring. He has participated the New York City Marathon 17 times.