After falling 150 feet off a cliff in Thailand while trying to escape a rapist in 2016, Hannah Gavios never thought she’d walk again. However, now she’s New York City Marathon finisher.

The 25-year-old woman from Queens who is partially paralyzed completed the 26.2-mile route on crutches in 11 hours, 20 minutes and 32 seconds.

Even though she finished long after the elite men and women crossed the tape, the crowd was large and loud for Gavios, their hometown hero.

“I didn’t expect this many people,” Hannah told the New York Post. “It just shows my city has my back. My city is awesome, waiting for me here — I don’t know how long everyone waited for me — it just means so much to me that you guys stayed. Thank you.”

 

 

Losing the ability to use her feet and toes, and with nerve damage in her shins, Gavios set her sights on the NYC Marathon after hearing about Amanda Sullivan, the former missionary in Mexico who was involved in a terrible car accident, yet traversed New York City’s five boroughs on crutches in 2017 to honor her mother.

Gavios told the New York Post she wanted to take on the marathon because she wanted to feel like “a functioning human — I don’t want to feel like I’m left behind.’’

In addition to putting in some long painful miles during training, Gavios also raised more than $19,000 for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for spinal cord injuries, and improving the quality of life for those who are living with paralysis.

“When people see me today, they are in immediate shock by my leg braces and canes. However, the severity of my injury is often misinterpreted. Many assume I will recover fully, but in reality this is a very long haul,” she wrote on her fundraising page. “I believe hard work on my behalf and valid research toward a cure will make full recovery possible. Today, I not only accept and embrace my physical disability at its current state, but also believe this is all temporary…This year I am crutching the marathon, but soon you’ll see me running it.”

And who can doubt someone with that kind of tenacity?