The Marathon Detours

She had just been struck by a car — and now, Susannah Scaroni was on her back in agony on the side of the road, waiting for medical responders to arrive.

When Scaroni — who was already paralyzed from the waist down — finally made it to the hospital, she learned she had fractured three vertebrae and her knee.

It would’ve been hard to fault her if she felt some self-pity. After all, this was the second time in her life she had been seriously injured in a car accident. But as she lay in the hospital bed last September, the sentiment was anything but sorrow.

“I’m incredibly grateful that my only injuries are a burst fracture of my T8 vertebrae and some road rashes,” Scaroni posted on Instagram. “It’s still hard to believe but I’ve been protected a lot in the past month and am so thankful for this.”

On Sunday, nearly 14 months since the second terrible accident in her life, she won the wheelchair New York City Marathon — shattering the previous course record.

Scaroni’s story has some key reminders for us.

Many of us at one point or another get dealt downright terrible hands. We suffer an awful injury, get unjustly laid off, experience some other major setback that feels terribly wrong.

We frequently lament our circumstances and wonder why it had to happen to us.

But to Scaroni, the difference between capitulating to the gloom and pushing through came down to:

1. Implementing realistic daily goals to see small wins

2. Accomplishing these and setting an even higher bar

3. Formulating a larger overall vision

She painstakingly worked to add upper-body strength and rehabbed her arms — gradually increasing her workload from 20 minutes worth of exercises each day to 90.

She also concentrated on her larger missions of returning to racing and continuing to serve as a role model for others in wheelchairs.

"Break it up into small chunks and build off of those," she said of her mentality.

We may not experience the trials Scaroni has in her life, but we can all do a little better to embody her grit, resiliency and consummate poise under duress.

They're values that can undoubtedly serve us well on our own leadership marathons.