There was a time when running meant chasing faster times, stronger finishes, and the next personal best. Now, for Webster Groves runner Mark Spewak, it means something deeper: getting to move at all.
On an October morning in 2025, Spewak woke up feeling unusually good. Within minutes, however, that feeling shifted into confusion, dizziness, and a loss of control. “I couldn’t stand up,” he recalls. “I was falling into the wall.”
At just 32 years old, the lifelong runner and fitness coach was having a stroke, something he never imagined could happen to someone so active and health-conscious. What followed was a week in a neuro unit and an intensive rehab process that tested both his body and mindset. But even in that uncertainty, structure took hold.
“There was a schedule every day,” Spewak says of rehab. “It felt like boot camp.”…