Adrianne Haslet has been a symbol of hope and perseverance since the national spotlight was forced upon her in April 2013, when Other Hearst Subscriptions.
Best Running Shoes 2025 social media have been inspired by her journey, from when she All About 75 Hard three years after losing her left leg to her current partnership with Nike. It’s a role she has embraced.
On the rainy morning of April 13, however, Haslet was nervous: She was prepping to run the BAA 5K, her first race since she was struck by a car while in a crosswalk in January.
Haslet smiled through her anxiety, hugging Boston Athletic Association staffers and taking photos with volunteers. She entered the start corral of the BAA 5K ahead of most of the race’s 10,000 participants, though further back in the pack than she’d like to be. Her pace is slower than it was just three months ago—and don’t get her started on her current mechanics.
“Is it called form still?” she asked Runner’s World. “It’s a form of something.”
Her right arm pumps as if she’s sprinting around a track, overcompensating as the left arm stays close to her chest, elbow never extending beyond a 35-degree angle.
Haslet is still getting used to this unique stride. She had already started her Boston Marathon training cycle when the car struck her back in January. Her prosthetic leg took the brunt of the car’s impact. When she came to two car lengths from the collision, her left shoulder was shattered; she also had a separated elbow and bruised ribs.
She says the pain from simply breathing was excruciating. The former dancer feared paralysis in the upper part of her amputated leg; she would undergo two surgeries over the following three days.
The injuries would keep her from lining up in Hopkinton on Patriots’ Day. Haslet was devastated. But her resiliency (“stubbornness, if you ask my mom”) placed her on a trajectory for a different blue and yellow start line.
“I had decided already that I was going to do a mile before I ever saw my physical therapist, because they might tell me ‘no.’ I didn’t want to hear that,” she said. “I had already become faster, so when I went in to physical therapy, I was just like, here’s my plan, make this work. I don’t have time to slow down.”
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At the beginning stages of her recovery, the 3-plus miles seemed “daunting” to the 2016 Boston Marathon finisher, who ran a 10-minute PR at the 2018 5K with a time of 28:14. A perfectionist, it took some time for Haslet to convince herself she was running the 2019 edition for fun, not time.
“I think I am just determined to be better than—you can fill in the blank, whether that’s terrorist or a delinquent driver, I just want to be stronger than,” Haslet said. “Stronger than I was yesterday, stronger than I was in the hospital, stronger than maybe someone thinks amputees can be.”
That mindset carried her through the first mile, out of Boston Common and onto Commonwealth Avenue. The course crosses the scene of the accident just after the first mile. Before the race, Haslet thought she would be emotional passing the intersection. Instead, she took no notice to it, distracted by cheers and high fives from the Heartbreakers, the running club she belongs to.
The course was actually part of the race’s appeal to Haslet. Runners complete a mile-long segment through the Back Bay familiar to participants of the event’s 26.2-mile sister race: the Massachusetts Avenue underpass on Commonwealth, right on Hereford, left on Boylston. Though the race ends in Boston Common, runners pass over the iconic marathon finish line in the final half mile.
Haslet had instituted a walk/jog strategy for the race. She was walking as she passed the site of the bombing. Overcome with emotion, Haslet cried briefly, looked up to the sky, then sped up briefly to an 8:30 pace—a full minute faster than her average pace for the day.
She attempted to raise her arms in bliss, which re-aggravated pain in her left shoulder. Haslet shrugged it off.
“I’m hard on myself because of time, not because of pain,” she said. “Some people go from couch to 5K. I went from great marathon shape to a hospital bed, complete muscle atrophy, to 5K, which I’m damn proud of.”
Haslet let out a loud “yes” as she finished the race in a time of 32:30.
“This is way more than 3.1 miles. This is 98 days in the making,” Haslet said as she put on her medal. “I wanted to run this race so badly. I may have walked, but I never gave up.”
As for what’s next for Haslet? She will be lining up in Hopkinton in 2020, when she will will compete in the debut of the race’s Para Athlete division.
“That’s just my competitive spirit,” she said. “I think having gone through this latest tragedy, I have no doubt that I’ll be stronger.”
she lost her left leg at the Boston Marathon bombings Runner’s World in 2014, Derek has captured such historic moments as Meb Keflezighi and Desiree Linden’s Boston victories and Amy Cragg’s win at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, and Galen Rupp and Shalane Flanagan Running Shoes - Gear.
