On a quiet afternoon in 2012, Monica Cost's life changed in an instant. Out on a routine 40–50 mile cycling training ride just outside San Antonio, she was struck from behind by an 82-year-old driver wearing cataract glasses, who collided with her while she was also likely distracted by her phone. The impact from the 55 mph crash launched her 30 feet into the air, shattering her spine and thrusting her into a new reality: one of unimaginable pain, uncertainty, and a prognosis that offered her less than a one percent chance of ever walking again.
"I remember feeling as if a train was right behind me, and then nothing," Cost recalls. "I was paralyzed from the waist down. I couldn't even get an MRI at first because the swelling was so severe. And when they told me I might never walk again, I thought: No. That's not my story."
