A birthday to remember at Boston Marathon for Fox Lane’s Silbersher

Fox Lane senior Annabel Silbersher (28967) heads to the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Photo courtesy MarathonFoto

Annabel Silbersher poses with her medal. She was the youngest competitor to compete in the 2025 Boston Marathon. Jim MacLean photo

By JIM MACLEAN

It was an unusual way to celebrate your 18th birthday, but it was one that Fox Lane senior Annabel Silbersher will always remember. And she has her name in the Boston Marathon record book to remind her of what she accomplished.

On Monday, April 21, Silbersher lined up at the starting line to compete with 30,000 other runners in the 129th edition of the Boston Marathon, just one day after celebrating her 18th birthday. And that put her in the record book as the youngest competitor and finisher for the 2025 Boston Marathon.

Silbersher didn’t set out to put her name in the record book of the prestigious race, she entered for an entirely different reason, but she had no control over the date of the marathon and it just happened to fall on the day after her birthday.

It all started in November when Silbersher watched the documentary “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” and she learned about the history of the former actor from Bedford and the work of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation to find a cure for spinal cord injury and improving the quality of life for individuals impacted by paralysis.

Silbersher decided to get involved and she signed up for Team Reeve and enlisted to run marathon races and do fundraising for the foundation. The first one happened to be the Boston Marathon. 

Since you have to meet a qualifying time to compete in Boston, or be part of an approved fundraising team, and the official age limit is 18, she just barely met the requirement by one day to officially enter the event. It wasn’t until the Boston Marathon contacted her that she realized she would be the youngest competitor in the 2025 marathon.

“It’s cool that I was the youngest, but it didn’t really cross my mind. I was much prouder of the fundraising that I did and it was all about Team Reeve and being able to give back to an incredible foundation,” explained Silbersher. “Being part of the foundation, I knew the whole time that I was running for more than myself. I enjoy running and the thought of not being able to run, the whole race I was thinking I was doing it for people who can’t run themselves and it was an incredible experience to do it as part of Team Reeve.”

Silbersher says she has always enjoyed running, but she has never been a competitive racer. She does not run track or cross-country, she played varsity tennis at Fox Lane and competed in basketball, but she started running with her father during the pandemic as a way to get outside and exercise and she has been running ever since.

The thought of running a marathon had never crossed her mind, until she saw the documentary in November 2024.

“I started running during quarantine with my dad as a hobby and I’ve only run for fun, but then I saw the documentary,” Silbersher explained. “I was really inspired by how much they advocated for paralysis research, so I signed up for Team Reeve and applied for the marathon.”

It wasn’t until January that she found out she was approved as an official team member and eligible to compete in the Boston Marathon. That gave her four months of training to get ready. She would do 5-mile runs during the week and a longer run on weekends. Her longest run leading up to the marathon was a 20-mile run.

She was obviously ready to compete and made the most of her chance on the famous course. Silbersher finished in 3:49, a sub-four hour marathon in her first marathon race.

An impressive time for a first-time marathon and a non-competitive runner, but Silbersher was more inspired by her fundraising efforts as she contributed $20,000 in donations to help Team Reeve compile $100,000 overall for their efforts in Boston.

“The training itself was kind of enjoyable, always running for more than myself, raising funds for the foundation and communicating with Team Reeve members leading up to the race,” added Silbersher. “The Boston Marathon reached out to me in March and told me I was going to be the youngest. I didn’t go into the race with any thoughts about time or age, I was just doing it for the organization. Team Reeve had two cheering sections and my parents and sister went to both of them. That was especially helpful at Heartbreak Hill — the make it or break moment — and once I survived that hill, that’s where the second Team Reeve group cheering section was and that was so much fun hearing them. It was all downhill from there, the last big push into Boston. It felt great and I was proud to finish and I’ll definitely do it again.”

She already has her sights set on the New York City Marathon in the fall and the Boston Marathon again next spring.

First, she will concentrate on graduating from Fox Lane in a month, and then she will enroll at the University of Michigan in the fall where she plans to major in movement science and sports nutrition.

She admits her legs were a little sore the day after the marathon, but she felt fine overall and has continued her running regimen, getting ready to do it all again. It sounds like this is just the start of the marathon career for the youngest runner in the 2025 Boston Marathon.