Nev Schulman ran the NYC Marathon 3 months after breaking his neck

TV’s Catfish Hunter isn’t going to run this marathon at breakneck speed.

The fact that Nev Schulman will even participate in the TCS New York Marathon on Nov. 3 is a miracle—he fractured his neck just three months ago in a bike accident, and doctors feared he might never walk again.

“I remember the look on every nurse’s and doctor’s face when they first walked into the room … expecting a paralyzed version of me, and being so shocked and almost confused,” said Schulman, 40. years old, for The Post.

“They all came in and did the same tests every few hours. They touched my feet and said: ‘Do you feel that?’ . . . I became very self-aware during those first 48 hours [in the ICU] how close I came to potentially never leaving the hospital – or walking – ever again.”

The host of MTV’s “Catfish” was riding his bike in the Hamptons on Aug. 5 to pick up his son from camp when he tried to merge into a lane of traffic and collided with a truck.

“And somehow in the moments I was looking over my shoulder. . . traffic was stopped and I actually ended up behind a truck, flew over my steering wheel and hit my head on the back of this truck,” he explained.

Doctors at Southampton Hospital discovered he had a fractured neck and he was rushed to Stony Brook Hospital for surgery.

The Upper East Side player was in the middle of training for a half marathon and asked his doctor when he could run again.

“He says, ‘You’re going to be in a neck brace for at least six weeks. . . I wouldn’t expect to run any marathons this year for sure,” said Schulman, who now lives in Williamsburg.

The TV star, who ran last year’s marathon as a guide for blind runner Francesco Magisano, resigned to miss the five-borough, 26.2-mile race this year. Until Francesco texted him.

I said: ‘Yes, I feel good. . . I wouldn’t count on me being your guide,’” Schulman recalls.

“And his response was, ‘Nev, I want to run it with you. I don’t care how fast or slow we go. If you think there’s a chance you can do it, I’ll wait.’”

An X-ray of him six weeks later showed that his neck had healed.

Schulman promptly ran his first mile — and on Sunday, he’ll run his eighth NYC marathon connected with Francesco, an Upper West Sider who’s also the director of the NYC chapter of Achilles International, an organization that helps athletes with disabilities.

“For completely blind athletes, they have two guides, one who is directly connected to them and then one who runs ahead to see the obstacles, to help move people if necessary and perhaps, most importantly, to get water and Gatorade. from the stations,” explained Schulman, who will be off with his friend, Tom Flaherty, as the guides share the two responsibilities.

Before agreeing to participate, Schulman, a father of three, spoke with his doctor.

“I said, ‘Am I free to run,'” he recalled. “And I actually recorded a video of him saying that so I could show my wife, because I knew she wouldn’t believe me.”