A year ago, Mark Spewak watched the Chicago Marathon from a bed inside a St. Louis rehabilitation facility. During the onset of his stroke, he was unable to stand on his own. On the eve of the 2026 race, the St. Louis-area running coach was preparing to run it himself, pursuing a goal that began with a whiteboard message scrawled during his hospital stay: Teddy's Team Chicago Marathon 2026.
A Sudden Collapse Upends a Running Career
Spewak, who was 32 at the time, suffered a sudden stroke in 2025, just over a year before the marathon, according to First Alert 4. He experienced a frightening cascade of symptoms — falling, an inability to stand, ringing in his ear, and worsening vision and thinking — before he was taken to the hospital in time. A more detailed clinical account from St. Louis Magazine reports that Spewak suffered a series of strokes affecting both the right and left sides of his cerebellum, the part of the brain that governs balance and motor coordination.
Spewak has credited the paramedics and staff at Mercy South Hospital with saving his life, per the station's report. Running had been part of his life since middle school, continuing through high school, college and into a post-collegiate career that he eventually turned into his livelihood. Before the stroke, he was the third runner on Ladue High School's 2010 Class 3 state championship team and went on to run at Rider University before founding Spewak Training in 2015, an operation that has since coached more than 150 athletes and guided over 50 runners to Boston Marathon qualifying times, according to Spewak Training.
A Whiteboard Goal and a Charity With a Familiar Story
Spewak set his sights on the Chicago Marathon one year after his stroke, running for Tedy's Team, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness for stroke and heart disease, the same report notes. He has said his recovery journey helped him channel the long hours in the hospital into motivation for his comeback. Tedy's Team was founded in 2005 by former New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi and his wife Heidi after Bruschi suffered an ischemic stroke at age 31; the organization says it has raised more than $13 million to support stroke and heart disease and help reduce stroke deaths, according to Tedy's Team.
Tedy's Team also participates in other travel marathons, extending its work beyond Boston.
Miles for Mark Kept the Community Running With Him
Back home, Spewak's client and close friend Stephanie True started a campaign called Miles for Mark after his stroke in 2025, according to First Alert 4. The effort aimed to encourage community members to dedicate their own workouts to Spewak during his recovery, and even after its original end date passed, Miles for Mark kept going.
True traveled to Chicago and wrote Miles for Mark on a marathon sign identifying who she was running for, the station reports, saying she intended for the marathon to mark the end of a full year of dedicating her miles to Spewak. The campaign became a thread tying St. Louis's running community to Spewak's recovery long after the initial headlines faded.
A Comeback Set Against a Rising National Trend
In a February podcast episode detailing his medical recovery, Spewak discussed suffering two strokes, according to the Spewak Training Podcast.
Spewak has encouraged people to learn stroke warning signs and remain alert to possible symptoms, First Alert 4 reports. The American Stroke Association promotes the B.E. F.A.S.T. acronym — Balance loss, Eye or vision changes, Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty, and Time to call 911 — as a quick way for the public to recognize a stroke in progress.
Running Through 29 Neighborhoods, One Year Later
The Bank of America Chicago Marathon was set to draw more than 55,000 runners to a flat 26.2-mile course spanning 29 Chicago neighborhoods, starting and finishing in Grant Park.
For Spewak, the race marked a goal that started with a whiteboard and a hospital bed. A year after watching the marathon from a rehabilitation facility, he was preparing to run it himself, carrying a message about stroke awareness that he and a St. Louis running community had kept alive mile by mile.
