Jaime Palacios

My name is Vivien and I am writing to raise hope. My coach, Jaime Palacios, came to NY to represent his country Ecuador in the 1986 NYC Marathon as an elite runner. He has run 28 NYC marathons and 200 NYC races. Prior to the 2021 NYC marathon, he suffered a traumatic injury to his knee that was so severe he required a partial knee replacement to walk without any pain. As you can imagine, undergoing a partial knee replacement not knowing if you would be able to run again, let alone at your prior level would make anyone's heart sink. We did not know of any elite runner who was able to run at a high level after a knee replacement. Fortunately, through the skilled hands of Dr. Andrew Pearle at HSS, Jaime tolerated his knee replacement well. It took many months of progressive training, often with knee pain, before he was able to run again.

Jaime recently completed the 2023 NYC Half Marathon, less than a year after his partial knee replacement, and finished it in 1:34 at the age of 68 years. He placed 3rd in his age group. He plans to run his first marathon since his partial knee replacement in November and is looking forward to once again run his favorite race course at the 2023 NYC Marathon!

Jaime is my running coach. He has inspired and trained so many runners of all types of ability within our community. I never ran in college and when I met Jaime, he was convinced I could be successful at road races. I placed 3rd in my AG in the 2022 NYC Marathon and 1st in my AG in the 2021 NYC Marathon. I am also a physician and strongly believe that hope plays a large role in healing. I wish to raise hope for those athletes who may have had a medical setback, especially those planning to undergo a knee replacement. Jaime has shown me that it is possible to come back to running after a knee replacement (with determination and hard work) and even at an elite level.