day, and on top of all of that I had no
idea what my time was because you
can’t wear a GPS watch. All of those
things together made me mentally
weaker than I normally am.”
The physical and mental beating
of that race took a toll on Brian
leading into his second Chicago
Marathon. It was right at that time
that he began gaining the attention
of the national press for his success
at London and his sub-three Chicago
marathon goal. He pushed through
and kept training, ignoring obvious
signs of physical strain. By mid-June,
he wasn’t able to walk due to overuse
injuries. So once again leading
into the Chicago Marathon, Brian
couldn’t run. “Instead I trained on my
Elliptigo (a cross between an elliptical
machine and a bike) every day for at
least three hours,” he said. “I mixed in
swimming, the nordic ski machine,
rowing, aqua-jogging, and weight
training. I didn’t start running until
right before Labor Day.”
To make up for lost time, Brian
crammed in intense running
workouts and didn’t taper them
until five days out from the race,
something that’s generally not
recommended. Nonetheless,
marathon day came and Brian felt
good. “I had three amazing pacers.
I was very confident in my fitness.
The weather was perfect, mid-50s,
cloudy, intermittent drizzle - but
generally that doesn’t bother me. We
were doing really well and we were
on target to finish at 2:55.”
That was before the sharp right
turn at the 22nd mile. It had been
raining fairly steadily by then and
the ground was slippery. Brian’s
blade caught in a pothole, and he
went down.
“It’s not something you usually
hear in a marathon, but my leg got
torn off, so I instinctively went to
reach for it.” He tried to grab one of
his pacers with his other hand, but
he missed. With no hands left to
protect his head, he fell down hard
on his left side.
“The world was completely
dark...it could have been one second
or a minute, I don’t even know. The
first thing I remember, runners
stopped to pull me off the ground. I
was super dizzy, couldn’t see straight,
vision was going in and out, and I
couldn’t really hear.”
It was a concussion, 22 miles into
the race, but it didn’t stop Brian. He
kept going. Slowly, his “shambling
walk turned into a shambling run.”
His legs were cramping. His hands
were numb. A race volunteer offered
to take him to the medical tent.
“That was probably the sweetest
temptation I’ve ever had in my life,”
Brian said. “I took one look at him
and kept running...I didn’t stop
moving until the end.”
Brian intermittently ran and
walked the last few miles, relying
heavily on the support of his pacer,
Jim Akita, the men’s track and cross
country coach at Elmhurst College.
Desperately gripping Jim’s hand,
Brian made it through the 26th mile.
Brian and his wife, Kim, live
in New Jersey with their two
children, Stephen and Zoanna.
Brian and his
brother, Andrew
Reynolds ’11,
at the 2011
USAPL New
England Open
Powerlifting
Championships,
held at Xaverian.
Brian, the first
para lifter at
the event,
totaled 633 lbs
in a push-pull
effort at 148 lbs
bodyweight.
STRONG IS:
The desire to finish the puzzle despite
knowing that some of the pieces are
missing. Because, I know that when that
puzzle is done, the real joy is not in the
completed picture, but that
I enjoyed and overcame the
task. —Brian Reynolds ’06
With .2 miles to go, Jim told Brian to
cross the finish line on his own. “He
kind of steadied me and said, ‘You
can run this final .2 miles; you don’t
need me.’”
Brian did it. He crossed the
finish line solo. Then, he said, “all
the dizziness and nausea took
over.” He sat down and found out
his official time, 3:03:22...a new
record, but not the sub-three for
which he was training. He was both
disbelieving that he finished at all
and disappointed in not meeting
his goal. He had planned that, upon
completing Chicago, he would take a
break from marathon racing to start
training for triathlons, potentially
going for the 2020 Olympics in
Tokyo. Now he says he’s thinking
maybe he can “sneak in” another
marathon in the spring. When asked
where this determination in the face
of such incredible obstacles came
from, Brian replied, “It probably
started at Xaverian.”
According to Matt Cavanagh
’96, Xaverian history teacher, “What
struck me almost immediately about
Brian was his tenacity to improve.
He wanted to become a better writer,
test taker, and improve his overall
academic skills. The strength he is
demonstrating today was certainly
present when he walked the halls of
Xaverian.”
“I have a naturally competitive
spirit,” Brian said. “It’s not necessarily
with anyone else, but with myself.
It’s a drive to see how much better I
can get, and it’s not just athletics, it’s
with anything that I do. I can’t say
there was one defining moment that
made me that way, but I just know
that I started to excel when I was at
Xaverian.”
In the days since our
conversation, Brian has been trail
running in Las Vegas, running
with Meb Keflezighi (New York
and Boston Marathon champion
and Olympic Silver Medalist),
skydiving (yes, that’s right), and
helping to spread the word about
the importance of vaccinating by
filming interviews for the National
Meningitis Foundation, all in
addition to working and being a
supportive husband and father to
his two young children. Through his
determination, perseverance, and
inexhaustible desire to keep pushing
his limits, Brian Reynolds has shown
us so many ways to be strong.
Winter 2019 Xaverian Magazine 3