“Catfish” creator Nev Schulman hopes to run the New York City Marathon only 12 weeks after breaking his neck in a Long Island cycling crash.
He’ll be running alongside blind triathlete Francesco Magisano, who lost his sight to a childhood eye cancer. Overcoming that disability motivated him to run, swim and cycle to victory in several races over the years.
Schulman, who’s completed the five-boroughs long run six times, told People the opportunity to serve as Magisano’s guide in Sunday’s marathon inspired him to work past the serious injuries he suffered when his electric bike ran afoul of a truck in August, landing him in Stony Brook Southampton Hospital with a C5-C6 vertebrae fracture.
“No one who runs a marathon isn’t hurting, but you can choose whether you want to suffer through it or if you want to smile, stay positive and keep it going.” the filmmaker said.
Schulman became known to documentary fans with his 2010 movie “Catfish,” which was about fake identities online. He later created the MTV series “Catfish: The TV Show,” dealing with the same subject matter.
Nearly three months ago, the filmmaker was seriously injured while cycling to pick his son up from school. Schulman said at the time he wasn’t exactly sure how the collision that could’ve killed him unfolded, but he expected to make a full recovery.
“It’s true what they say — life can change in an instant,” he wrote on Instagram.
According to Schulman, Magisano reached out to him two weeks after that crash — while he was hospitalized and “feeling terrible” — optimistic that the two of them would run together in November.
Magisano texted, “I don’t care how fast or slow we go, I really want you to be my guide,” Schulman tells People.
After being released from the Southampton Emergency Room, he headed to Stony Brook ICU and began on a road to recovery leading to Sunday’s 26.2-mile race that begins it Staten Island at 8 a.m., then passes through Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx before ending at Central Park.