“D
on’t mind me being out
of breath, I’m squeezing
in a workout while we
talk,” Brian Reynolds
told me when I called him on
October 18. It was 11 days after he
set a personal and official bilateral
below-the-knee amputee world
record at the Chicago Marathon,
clocking 3:03:22. Even with that
incredible accomplishment, he’ll tell
you he fell short of his goal. Brian, a
2006 graduate of Xaverian Brothers
High School, is determined to hit
a sub-three-hour marathon as a
double amputee.
When Brian was four years old,
he contracted meningococcemia, a
rare blood infection. He lost both
legs as a result. Embarrassment,
he admits, kept him from trying
out for high school sports, but his
mother had introduced him to the
gym in middle school and he says
he never left. By college, he had
taken an interest in powerlifting
and shortly after was able to deadlift
485 pounds. When he wanted to
build his endurance in addition to
his strength, he signed up to hike
the Grand Canyon with Team in
Training, raising money in support
of the Leukemia and Lymphoma
Society. Soon thereafter, running
began to replace powerlifting and
Brian’s unlikely road to the Chicago
Marathon began.
It started with small steps. One
minute of running a day, every day
for a week...then two minutes...
and so on. At the end of 2013 he
received his first pair of specialized
running legs and in January 2014,
he ran his first marathon, the Disney
Marathon, in 4:30. By his second
marathon in 2017, he shaved an
hour off his time and hit 3:27. “After
that, I got more serious and I got a
coach,” he said, and began training
in earnest for the 2017 Chicago
Marathon. It was going well until
that summer when he needed a new
pair of running legs. “I had a lot of
fit issues, so I didn’t run all summer,”
Brian said. “I did a lot of cross
training, aqua jogging, and rowing.
I got the running blades up and
working on Labor Day weekend so I
had only four weeks of run training
before the Marathon.”
Even with the training deficit,
Brian finished the race in 3:06:38.
“That was mind blowing to me,”
said Brian. “It really changed my
expectations on the potential I had.
Sub-three always seemed like ‘Okay,
that’d be nice if it happened one day
far in the future.’ My time got me
an invite to the London Marathon,
which is the Para Athletics World
Cup. I took training to a whole new
level then. I was up to 70 miles a
week.”
And then, three weeks out from
the marathon, Brian had to have
emergency gallbladder surgery. Two
hours off the operating table, he was
home and working out again. “It was
probably a mistake on the doctor’s
part,” he joked, “but they assured
me that nothing I could do would
injure the surgical sites. I think in
hindsight though that I pushed
myself too far,” he said. “By the time
I got to London, I was mentally tired,
physically tired, not confident, and
not feeling strong.”
He had what he calls a “terrible
day” at London, despite setting a
new personal record of 3:03:35 and
winning the race for his para athletic
category. “For the para athletes, they
start you out 55 minutes ahead of the
main field, so I ran the entire course,
point to point, 100% solo. I was out
there for 3 hours, 3 minutes, and 35
seconds alone. Also, I was mentally
tired going into the race, it was a hot
BRIAN REYNOLDS ’06
REDEFINING STRONG
Jim Akita (left) bolsters Xaverian alumnus, Brian Reynolds ’06 (right), as he tries to reach the
finish line in the 2018 Chicago Marathon after a devastating fall at mile 22.
Written by Ann Alsfeld
2 www.xbhs.com