When Juan Pablo Dos Santos finally reached the last stretch of the New York City Marathon, his body was begging him to stop. His mind was loud with doubt. But somehow, con corazón and pure stubborn Venezuelan grit, he kept going.
Juan Pablo is only 26 years old, and his journey to that finish line began years before he ever stepped foot in Staten Island. In 2019, a horrific car accident in Venezuela changed his life forever. He lost both of his legs and endured surgeries on his hips and pelvis. Doctors told him his chances of walking again were almost zero.
But if there’s something fighters like Pablo know well, it’s that “no se rinde” is in his DNA.
For Juan Pablo, recovery came with a mountain of bills. Just when his family didn’t know how they would continue paying for treatment, a stranger stepped in. An anonymous donor covered the cost of his prosthetics and rehab at a top clinic in Latin America. That unexpected act of kindness didn’t just change Juan Pablo’s life, it lit a fire in him.
He learned that “small actions can create huge change in someone’s life,” and he promised himself to pay it forward.
Motivated to prove his doctors wrong, he began walking again, then dreaming bigger. Way bigger. He created the Fundación Juan Pablo 2 Santos, a nonprofit dedicated to helping young amputees receive prosthetics so they can keep moving toward their own dreams.
Once he reclaimed his ability to walk, another thought came to mind. Why not run? And not just any run. The New York City Marathon. The dream sounded impossible to everyone who heard it. That disbelief only fueled him more.
Training for the marathon looked very different for Juan Pablo. Because of the risk of skin damage and irritation from the prosthetics, he couldn’t put in long training runs like most marathoners. Instead, he focused on swimming, strength work and mental toughness.
On Marathon Sunday, he started confident and excited, surrounded by supporters and flags. But around mile 12, reality hit. Every mile began to feel like three. Time seemed to move slower, and his distance tracker barely budged.
Between miles 19 and 22, his body gave out beneath him. He fell hard. For a moment, he thought the race was over for him. But he got up, wiped the pain off his face and kept inching forward.
Those final two kilometers were torture. Every step was fire. Every movement, a battle. Yet, just after 12:30 a.m., almost 15 hours after he started, he crossed that finish line, the last official runner of the 2025 TCS NYC Marathon. And the crowd treated him like the champion he truly is.
For ten minutes after, he says the pain vanished. What stayed was the purpose. He wasn’t thinking about finishing last. He was thinking about the people who saw him push past the impossible, who might now dare to chase their own goals.
Juan Pablo hopes his journey becomes a reminder to anyone who feels “late” or defeated in life:
It doesn’t matter if you’re the last one to arrive. What matters is that you refuse to quit before crossing your finish line.
