Reporter/Multimedia Journalist
LOUISVILLE, Ky. —
Wyatt Anderson has set goals for himself over the past 11 months. This past Sunday, he accomplished his biggest goal to date: running the Chicago Marathon.
While Anderson said he considers himself an athlete, running 26.2 miles means a little bit more for him, as he is just 11 months removed from suffering paralysis.
Anderson said he was playing basketball with his friends the night of Nov. 4, 2025, when he went for a rebound. He fell headfirst into a wall, fracturing his spine.
“I just kind of blacked out for a little bit and then woke up on my back not being able to move,” Anderson said.
He was rushed to UofL Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, where he had surgery to fuse his spine. As Anderson recovered at UofL Health’s Frazier Rehab Institute, slowly but surely, he regained movement.
With the help of the team at Frazier Rehab, Anderson set and achieved a series of goals, starting with eating on his own and walking down the hallway. These milestones eventually led to him running a half marathon in April.
Sister station WLKY spoke with Anderson ahead of his run in the Chicago Marathon about how he prepared for it.
“Just setting the goal to do this run, just kind of it sounded like I would never, like I kind of just did it just to have something to chase, but it actually is becoming real now,” he said.
Anderson acknowledged the challenges of marathon training.
“It’s probably like one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, because you have to be consistent with it and it just mentally is very hard. But I think just coming here often and just like seeing the people around me here, it’s huge,” he said.
On Thursday, Anderson was able to speak to a group of spinal cord injury patients at UofL, a support group he was once a part of when he was in rehab here.
“When I was in here, having someone like to see that is actually made it out and has recovered fully, was a huge thing,” he said. “I had several people that I looked up to, and so that was just a huge motivator, because you can see that it’s possible.”
Now, as he continues his recovery, Anderson hopes his journey will inspire others, as others have inspired him.
“If I’m having like a hard mile or something, I just like think about running for those people that can’t and are trying to recover,” he said.
Wyatt Anderson and his brother ran the Chicago Marathon on Sunday to raise money for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which supports spinal cord injury research.
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