For Ally Weinberg, running has always represented a goal and a sense of freedom, even when her body made it almost impossible. Growing up in New Jersey and living in New York City for the past nine years, she was always an athlete, playing two varsity sports in high school. But, persistent leg issues derailed her athleticism, and over the next decade, Ally would endure 13 leg surgeries, face repeated warnings from doctors that she might never run again, and navigate a grueling medical journey.
Now, after years of persistence, she is preparing to run the 2025 New York City Marathon, not only for herself, but to honor her grandfather and great-grandfather, who passed away after battling pancreatic cancer.
An Athletic Life Interrupted
Ally’s love for running began early. “It’s an escape for me,” she says. She thrived in sports, being a two-time varsity athlete, but her senior year of high school marked the beginning of a medical battle that would redefine her relationship with movement.
Her legs began going numb during games—first in soccer, then in basketball, where the pain was more pronounced. Cold plunges before games became routine and her new normal, accepting it as “weird, but okay.”
Doctors initially suggested she had chronic exertional compartment syndrome, a condition that cause numbness, aching, and tightness due to the fascia not expanding reducing blood flow and compressing nerves. At the time, it was not viewed as a major issue, since she wasn’t planning to play competitive sports in college.
But once she arrived at Ohio State, the problem escalated: walking across campus left her feet numb and shaky. Tests confirmed compartment syndrome, and she underwent her first surgery on both legs in December of her freshman year. Relief lasted two and a half years before the pain returned.
Over the next decade, Ally faced repeated setbacks. Multiple surgeries were required, sometimes with stitches that wouldn’t close, leaving her in intense pain. She was told many times that she might never run again.
Doctors suspected Popliteal Artery Entrapment Syndrome (PAES), a rare condition limiting blood flow to the lower leg during movement, but initial tests were inconclusive. Frustration grew as repeated surgeries failed to solve the problem, and some doctors even refused to attempt more procedures.
“I was walking around most days with a stress ball in my pocket because I was in so much pain,” Ally recalls. “It was a really, really hard time because I felt super hopeless, and a doctor is telling me that there is no reason I’m in this pain and this can’t be explained by anything.” Despite the setbacks, she refused to accept a life limited by pain.
Finding new doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital and Beth-Israel was a turning point. They finally identified the cause: trapped arteries and nerves in her legs that cut off blood flow, explaining her persistent pain. The successful surgeries not only addressed her condition, but also revealed additional nerve damage from previous operations.
“I can’t say enough good things about Boston Children’s and Beth-Israel,” Ally says. “They really took the time to treat me like a human being… I didn’t feel like I got that anywhere else.”
Reflecting on her journey, Ally notes the overlap of her medical struggles with major life milestones: college, law school, and her early career. “These surgeries marked very major chapters in my life… Every big milestone has also been plagued by a surgery,” she says.
Despite 11 years of misdiagnoses, repeated procedures, and setbacks, Ally’s persistence and resilience never faltered.
A Family Legacy: Pancreatic Cancer and Its Impact
While Ally’s own health battles have fueled her determination to run the 2025 New York City Marathon, her journey is also deeply connected to her family’s experiences with pancreatic cancer. Both her grandfather and her great-grandfather lost their lives to the disease.
Her grandfather passed when Ally was a senior in high school, a time already marked by her own medical challenges. “I was at the age where I knew what was going on,” she recalls, “and it happened so fast.” Watching the toll it took on her mother, father, grandmother, uncle, and the rest of her family was overwhelming. “Seeing how it affected them, and how they had to make decisions so quickly, along with the terribly fast progression of the disease, was incredibly hard,” she says.
The speed with which her grandfather’s health declined was especially painful. “It was hard to see someone who was so strong lose that so quickly,” Ally reflects. “I think that’s what really hurt him—part of who you are is what you portray, and to have that taken away from you so fast is one of the cruelest things.”
Despite the pain and confusion, Ally also remembers the moments of joy and support her grandfather brought into her life. “He was the biggest cheerleader,” she says with a smile. “He came to everything. He never missed a thing, and he was such a presence—very, very tall—so you also couldn’t miss him.”
Though she never met her great-grandfather, who passed before she was born, Ally feels a deep connection to him through her grandmother and the enduring legacy of perseverance and love that inspires every step she takes toward the marathon this November.
Cleared to Conquer: Ally’s Journey to the NYC Marathon
Running a full marathon was a goal Ally never thought she could achieve after years of surgeries. Nevertheless, she refused to accept that limitation. She trained cautiously, focusing first on half marathons. Completing a 13-mile race had symbolic weight—she had endured 13 leg surgeries, and the 13 miles felt like a milestone of perseverance and recovery.
After the RBC Brooklyn Half Marathon, she went on to run additional half marathons in California and Florida, gaining confidence and proving to herself that she could continue. Yet hesitation remained. In 2024, her doctor refused to clear her for a full marathon. Undeterred, Ally continued training, building endurance and strength, until April 2025, when she returned to her doctor to request clearance once again.
“I kept looking at him, and he’s like, ‘You want me to clear you for the marathon, right?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, please!’” Ally recalls. After his approval, she reached out to Project Purple, cold-calling Vin, their program director, with her “elevator pitch” about herself and her journey. Within a week, she was officially part of the Project Purple team for the 2025 NYC Marathon.
Finding a charity to run with was an important, though quick, decision. Ally was specifically looking for an organization connected to pancreatic cancer, wanting her marathon to support a cause that resonated personally. That’s when she found Project Purple: “They really stuck with me. I just looked for pages that I felt a connection to, because though I’m doing this for me, I wanted it to be more than just that.”
The organization’s mission resonates deeply with her, not just for fundraising and research, but for supporting the loved ones left behind. “It’s really difficult for both the person going through it and the loved ones on the other side,” she reflects. “That’s why I think Project Purple is so unique.”
When asked why she chose NYC as her first marathon, her answer was clear. “There’s something so special about New York,” Ally shares. “Being able to do this in a city where you know so many people, where you walk these streets every day…to get to appreciate it in a different way and to be able to have your community show up for you is so important. It’s always been the one marathon I’ve wanted to do first.”
She also felt a personal connection between pancreatic cancer and her own medical struggles, which guided her choice of organization. “It was a long and difficult journey to get answers – physically, emotionally, and financially – with travel to many different doctors and I was fortunate to have the support system to do so. That’s why Project Purple is so important to me: it helps people find answers and eases some of the financial burden by providing funding to uncover what’s really going on,” she explains.
Strides for Generations
Above all, at the heart of Ally’s marathon journey is her grandmother.
The loved ones she is running for—her grandmother’s husband and father—make this race deeply personal and emotionally significant for her grandmother.
She follows every step of Ally’s journey, celebrating milestones, checking her fundraising page, and sharing in her excitement.
“She is so happy and so proud. She also checks my page every day and gets a notification when more people have added,” Ally says. “You can see in the donations that even her friends are contributing, and people who know her. I think it means a lot to her. And I think she’s honored that this is a cause that I’m running for.”
Even now, as race day approaches, Ally admits to feeling nervous. “I never really thought that I’d actually be able to do it,” she says. “I’m still scared as the weeks are coming.” Yet each training run reminds her of how far she has come, both physically and mentally.
“I think back to those moments during my medical journey a lot when I am training—the frustration levels of not even being able to take a step without pain. And that was only two and a half years ago at this point.” The marathon represents not just the culmination of her recovery but a chance to prove to herself, and to others, that perseverance pays off.
Ally’s brothers, both marathon runners themselves, have long inspired her. She jokes about watching them run and feeling both pride and envy. Running the NYC Marathon gives her the opportunity to take her own place alongside them, finally experiencing the achievement she had always dreamed about.
She describes crossing the finish line in November as going to “mean everything.” She imagines running across the Queensboro Bridge and through Central Park, thinking of her grandmother, her family’s struggles, and the obstacles she has personally overcome.
“Every day when I train, I think about how these are going to be the spots I’ll be on in such a different way,” she says. “It gets me very emotional.” Having her family—her parents, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, cousins, aunt, uncle, grandmother—on the sidelines makes the experience even more meaningful.
When asked what comes next, Ally is unsure. She plans to do a “body-check” after NYC, acknowledging the lingering fears that anyone who has faced a chronic illness carries. Once she clears herself, she hopes this race is the first of many.
Ally’s culminating words capture the heart of her journey: “It feels amazing to be able to do this,” she says. “I get to have my own goal through everything I’ve gone through, and then be able to have an impact on other people so they don’t have to go through the same pain.”
To support Ally’s run in honor of her loved ones and to help raise awareness for pancreatic cancer, donate to her fundraising page here.
If you’d like to run or participate in an event of your own for Project Purple, visit our events page.
