Jason Fowler, 40, spread a message of inspiration and determination to Lasell College on Thursday, March 27.
At the age of 5, Fowler started racing motocross, and was ranked nationally by 10. While practicing on March 31, 1991 at 17, he crashed into a rock and severed his spinal cord, paralyzing him from the chest down. Fowler said that while he was laying in the hospital after his accident, the Boston Marathon was on the television. He said that when he saw the wheel chair racers on TV, it inspired him. At the age of 17, Fowler decided that he could still race and be athletic despite the permanence of his injury.
“Once I started getting back into athletics and started wheelchair racing, I was like ‘wow’ and this whole world opened up.” He started training for 5K’s and eventually made his way up to racing in ½ marathons. By his second marathon race, he qualified for the Boston Marathon.
Fowler said later on, he heard about the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, which consists of 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile marathon run. It is the largest known triathlon in the world and probably the most harsh and grueling race. Fowler learned that his childhood hero, David Bailey – who suffered a similar injury to Fowler, won the Ironman, which inspired Fowler to compete as well.
Fowler trained and qualified for the Ironman his first year. In the Ironman, there are cutoff points in which you have to finish certain parts of the race. He unfortunately didn’t have the chance to finish the race, but didn’t give up. For multiple years after his first Ironman, Fowler never qualified for another. “I had this goal,” he said, “and giving up just didn’t feel right to me.”
Eventually Fowler decided he wasn’t going to focus on qualifying for the race, “I didn’t want to qualify, I was going to win.” In 2008, Fowler had finally qualified for another Ironman, finishing the race with a time of 11 hours and 21 minutes in second place.
In 2009, Fowler had the opportunity to compete against David Bailey at the Ironman. He met him at the trials in Texas, and beat him by three or four minutes. During the Ironman, Fowler said the two put up quite the fight against one another. “He put a sprint together and I would match it. Then I’d put one together and he would match it. Eventually I put a sprint together and looked over and he wasn’t matching it. I pulled six minutes on him and won the Ironman.”
“I won’t say it’s [the Ironman] easy, that’s for sure,” he laughs. Fowler is now 40, and says that able-bodied athletes usually peak around 36 or 37, “I figure I’ve got another 5 years window [to compete].”
“My whole thing was that I wanted to be a professional motocross racer and now I think that being in a wheelchair and the challenges in front of me push me to prove that I am an able body. I have probably accomplished more now than I would have if my accident had never happened,” Fowler said when an audience member asked him how he thought his life would be different. “I think because it was so hard, I escalated to this level to do and be my best.”
This past year, Fowler competed in his first Ironman since 2009. He took 40 minutes off of his best time and came in fourth place. This year, he is competing in his 12th Boston Marathon. He said that he has started training with a couple who lost their legs at last year’s race who are now competing on hand cycles.
Fowler is a graduate of Northeastern University and holds his MBA from Boston University. He is a Kingston, MA native and currently works for a medical device company as a sales representative in the Greater Boston area.
Fowler is an inspiration to athletes around the globe, able-bodied and paraplegic alike. His story shows that hard work and determination can propel you to success and that, according to Fowler, accomplishing traditional goals doesn’t equal happiness.
When asked if he would go back and change anything, he laughed and said, “The only thing I’d ever change in my life would be my college major.”