From dramatic weight loss to surviving cancer and beating a debilitating injury to race-training after a near-fatal car crash, several impressive runners taking part in all, or part, of Saturday’s Hartford Marathon shared their running stories with WTIC News.
He was too heavy to walk, now he can run a 5K
Running in the Hartford Marathon 5K Saturday, a man from Middletown is hoping that the story of his dramatic weight loss will encourage others to get off the couch.
Josh Burger weighed 370 lbs. when he met with his doctor a year-and-a-half ago. His heart was struggling.
“He basically said, ‘Either lose weight or die,’” says Burger. “So, I started exercising and started a weight loss regimen.”
He slashed his portions dramatically and started to walk—then run, saying, “The walking was great, but I wanted more.”
He installed the Couch to 5K app and followed the plan.
Almost 2 million steps later, Burger weighs 170 lbs. and he’s successfully running 5K’s.
“I never thought in a million years I’d go from being barely being able to walk a hundred feet to running a 5K without stopping in less than 3-4 months. It’s beyond my imagination.”
He’ll run the 5K as a member of the Hartford Marathon Foundation’s “Inspiration Team.”
“The steps kept adding up,” Burger says, adding that those around him have been inspired by his visible weight loss, even co-workers at his job running facilities for the Middletown Board of Ed. “My whole goal now is to keep motivating other people to get up and walk and run.”
South Windsor mom beat cancer and a serious leg injury
Another member of the Inspiration Team, Heather Marchegiani, celebrates two comebacks by running in the Hartford Half-Marathon. The South Windsor mother of three was diagnosed with breast cancer at 33 and was told her running career was over after she injured the IT band in a leg at the same event fifteen years ago.
Now 39, she’s been cancer-free for five years. The road back was tough: “Stage II, triple-positive, so it required three sets of chemotherapy (and) a couple different surgeries.”
Her leg injury was also tough to beat, and it took away something she loved:
“It was hard to accept that I wasn’t going to be able to run anymore,” says Marchegiani.
It took more than a decade to find the physical therapist who was able to help improve her leg to the point it allows her to run.
“I started running in January of 2025 and I ran the ‘half’ last year as my first ‘half’ back, which is just about one year after starting with this physical therapy clinic.”
“I get so much joy out of every step, whether it’s on a treadmill or outside, knowing that I went a long time in between being able to do this again.”
And she specifically looks forward to running in Hartford, which she started running as a UConn student from New Hampshire, saying, “It’s big, so it’s got all the hype and the crowds and the music and all the things to keep you going.”
Running his first marathon three years after a devastating crash
Jay Rustico, now 42, was driving on I-84 when a trucker finishing a lunch break pulled into the roadway.
“I was in a small Acura RSX. My car got stuck under his truck,” says Rustico, of Southington.
Jay survived serious brain injuries, broken bones and more. He still has visual and hearing deficits.
During rehab, still in a wheelchair, he was impressed when he observed a race known as the “Gaylord Gauntlet,” run over an obstacle course on the Wallingford campus of Gaylord Specialty Healthcare.
He decided to pick up running so he could compete in it.
“It just helps me clear my head. Like when I’m running, I’m just running, I’m not thinking about other stuff.”
Working with Achilles International, which runs athletic programs for those with disabilities, Jay progressed to the point where he can take part in races.
Saturday in Hartford marks his first marathon. He’ll run with his longtime guide, Mike Halasinski of Cheshire as part of Achilles’ Connecticut chapter.
Jay’s mother, Jan, says Rustico is a former baseball player who set ambitious goals for himself after suffering his injuries.
“When he first started with Achilles, he only could walk a mile,” says Jan. “The fact that three years later he’s competing in a marathon is… we couldn’t be happier or more proud of him.”
