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From motocross prodigy to Boston Marathon wheelchair, Jason Fowler races through adversity
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- From motocross prodigy to Boston Marathon wheelchair, Jason Fowler races through adversity
The course at Myles Standish State Forest was familiar.
At 17 years old, Jason Fowler was readying for his first year of semi-pro motocross, and the Kingston native took his dirt bike into the same woods where he'd practiced hundreds of times.
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Motocross was Fowler's life. When his father, Mike, bought his first motorbike at 5 years old, everything clicked.
"Something lit up in my eyes," Fowler said. "I looked at that thing like — I still do now, like, oh that's so awesome. So much fun."
Fowler had been riding for over a decade, competing 30 to 40 weekends a year up and down the East Coast. He already had a few significant sponsorships, including Kawasaki, and with eight New England Championships under his belt as an amateur, 1991 was going to be his first year with a professional race.
March 13 was an unseasonably warm day and Fowler had an early dismissal from high school, so he did what he always did: Practiced.
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Fowler was deep in the Plymouth forest with three of his friends, working on starts — going from a standstill to top speed as quickly as possible then simulating the first turn.
While the venue was familiar, a rock on the course after a snowy New England winter was new.
"It sent me flying," Fowler said.
He landed on his head and the pressure went to the middle of his spine. As Fowler lay on the ground in a daze, he wasn't sure what happened beyond a stinging pain in his back. With his helmet on, Fowler couldn't see his feet, so he asked his friends to take his boots off as he collected himself.
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That's when the severity of the injury set in. They'd already taken his boots off. Fowler couldn't feel his lower half.
"I had nothing else really wrong with me — I just broke my back," Fowler said. "I just still have that burned in my memory, that moment when it happened."
Fowler was rushed by ambulance to Boston Medical Center. There, doctors confirmed the grim news. He'd severed his spinal cord, and at 17, was paralyzed from the chest down.
Following the accident, Fowler had a close-knit community of friends and family who supported him. His mother, Luanne, was the most impactful. After a couple days in the hospital, she told her son something that he'll never forget.
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"O.K., we're going to feel bad for ourselves for a couple of weeks here," Fowler's mother told him at his bedside. "Whatever that is. Then we're going to go home and just get on with this thing. Get out of here and get on with this and do our best, whatever that is.'"
That set the tone for everything.
KAILUA KONA, HAWAII - OCTOBER 12: Jason Fowler of the United States competes in the Ironman World Championships on October 12, 2019 in Kailua Kona, Hawaii. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images for IRONMAN)Getty Images for IRONMAN
Fowler extended his mother's grieving period from a couple of weeks to a couple of months as he adjusted to his new wheelchair. There was a time of sadness and transition. But eventually, his perspective began to shift. After dedicating so much of his youth to motocross, he now had more time to experience normal teenage activities.
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"Before that, all I did was race and practice and train every day to try to be my best and travel on the weekends," Fowler said. "So I never got to play with friends and go do things. Go to parties. After my accident, as much as it sucked, it was also like, 'I actually get to be a kid right now.' It just happens to be that I'm in a wheelchair now. I've got this thing that's happening that's horrible, but also, my world just opened up in a different way."
The accident didn't extinguish Fowler's competitive fire.
Six months after his injury, Fowler began looking into wheelchair races. He started with shorter road races, then worked his way up to marathons. Next were triathlons, and eventually Ironman competitions.
Now 51 years old, Fowler is a two-time Ironman World Champion in the handcycle division, and later this month, he'll be competing in his 21st Boston Marathon.
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In addition to athletic accomplishments, Fowler has a Bachelor's Degree from Northeastern, an MBA from Boston University, and has enjoyed a successful career in finance and medical sales.
"Some people say it: Everything happens for a reason," Fowler said. "I'm not sure that everything happens for a reason, but I know that it only benefits me to believe that somehow this is happening for me, and not to me."
In 2020, Fowler underwent another change. He quit his corporate gig to start his own mental performance coaching business. He mostly works with teenagers, but has a group of 10-year-olds and has a couple professional athletes in their 20s. He's working on a program to help build confidence in kids.
After so many people supported his journey, this is Fowler's way of finding joy and paying it forward. He wants to help others overcome their own adversities.
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"I want to be that person for other people in their lives," Fowler said. "When you think about the people that drive you and give you the confidence to move forward and inspire you, and give you the tools to work with the crap that life throws at us."
This will be the 21st time he's qualified to race in the Boston Marathon, a task that's gotten slightly easier since he turned 50, where the time requirement jumps from 2:15:00 to 2:30:00. He trains four days a week in his racing wheelchair, swims two or three times, and mixes in some light weight lifting.
Fowler usually aims to finish in two hours— his all-time best is around 1:42:00 — but knows finish times are often impacted by winds on the Boston course. He's learned not to worry about things he can't control.
Now 34 years from that day in the Plymouth woods, Fowler doesn't regret what happened. He believes he's a better person for having gone through the accident. There are still challenging days, but he's built a life that he gets excited about every morning.
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"There's definitely a lot of struggle at different times, but I think it's that struggle that really makes you recognize that living and the things that we get to do on this planet are just that much more special," Fowler said. "I think you just feel it more when it's taken away."
