Dynamic duo: Man with MS does marathons with a push from his brother

For the past four years, including this one, Brian Connolly has circled July 24 on his calendar: Pioneer Day in Utah.

He’ll awaken early in the morning and family members will use a motorized lift to move the 55-year-old retired physician’s assistant from his bed to his wheelchair. He’ll roll into his van for the ride to Mountain Dell Golf Course in Parleys Canyon about 16 miles east of downtown Salt Lake City. The Deseret News Marathon starts there this year.

Connolly’s dad, younger brother Danny, and perhaps a nearby runner will then hoist Brian’s 170-pound body from the wheelchair to a three-wheel racing chair. His brother-in-law, Jared Madsen, who owns a bike shop, built it with an elongated metal frame, tall handle bars at the back and a hammock of sorts in the middle. It also has a steering system, foot pegs and brakes. They dubbed it the “chariot.”

Danny Connolly will grip the handle bars and start running when the starter’s gun goes off in the 5:30 a.m. morning darkness. He’ll push his brother for the next 26.2 miles, grinding up the course’s early hills toward Big Mountain in his running shoes and jumping on the foot pegs for the downhill stretches through Emigration Canyon before reaching the finish line at Liberty Park.

Brian Connolly has multiple sclerosis. Marathons, he said, are his “lifeline.”

“Having MS and I spend a lot of time in bed until someone can come get me up and take care of me. I need a lot of care, but doing this has been phenomenal for me,” he said. “It actually, I think, helps my marriage ... I think it’s helping my mind stay bright, and it’s helping me physically somewhat do something, and then socially.”

Brian was diagnosed with MS the summer before his sophomore year at East High School. His wife of 32 years, Julie, ran a marathon when they were in their 20s. He kept it on his list of possibilities but he wrote it off as his autoimmune disease worsened. He’s been in a power wheelchair for the past 10 years. The father of six children and grandfather of two worked until age 51, a year past his goal. He now only has the use of his left arm.

“Then Danny saved me by inviting me to do marathons,” he said.

Running for life

In 2019, Danny, unbeknownst to Brian, contacted the St. George Marathon about the possibility of pushing his brother in the annual October race. Given the green light, he called Brian, who was living in California at the time. “Let’s do it,” Brian told him.

Danny, a 48-year-old Park City electrician, has competed in more than 200 road and trail races, including marathons and ultramarathons. He has his own reason for running.

“If I’m honest about it, do you want to know? You want to know something? I quit drinking, and I needed to fill that void,” he said. “So I’ve gone long five-year stretches without drinking, and then even dabbled in it a little bit again, and now I’m on another 5-year stretch.”

Brian found that first marathon in St. George transformative. “I felt exhilaration I had not experienced in years. The rhythm of the race, the cheers of spectators, the shared purpose with Danny all taught me this: Life’s joys are not lost with disability; they are simply expressed differently,” he wrote in a short book about his life titled “Living Beyond Limits.”

Brian said his disability disappears for a bit while he’s in a race.

“It happens every every marathon that I’m on sort of a cloud nine and even after the marathon. I don’t want the feeling to go away with the realization that I’m still having to deal with all my medical issues and everything that comes with it,” he said.

“I think the secret behind adaptive sports is once you’re disabled you have this feeling like you’ll never get to do this, I never get to do that ever again. But then someone makes it possible and all I feel is gratitude.”

Because of the pandemic, the brothers weren’t able to do another marathon for two years. But since then, they have completed 12, including races in San Diego; Los Angeles; Mesa, Arizona; Arlington, Virginia, and Boston.

Danny has also gained a new sense of purpose in teaming up with Brian.

“I think he has a disease that he didn’t ask for. I have a disease that I didn’t ask for. ... I guess in the beginning it was for Brian to do the St. George Marathon, but then I started getting perks out of it, too, because of the amount of positivity and smiles and inspiration — my customers at work, ‘You guys are doing what?’" he said.

The Connollys have applied for entry in the New York Marathon in November.

At the Boston Marathon, the duo ran under the Team Hoyt banner. Dick Hoyt and his son Rick, who had cerebral palsy, competed in more than 1,110 races starting in 1977, including 32 Boston Marathons. In 1989, they started the Hoyt Foundation, which “aspires to build the individual character, self-confidence and self-esteem of America’s young people with disabilities through inclusion in all facets of daily life.”

Danny had run Boston three times himself before he and Brian did it together.

“I was kind of done with it, honestly. I’d been there, done that, and I’d moved on to trail running. I was into my 50-mile runs. But when it came around that we could do Boston with Brian, and then that we got sponsored or whatever by Team Hoyt, and now we’re doing it under their name, and it was their group, that was an unbelievable experience. Way different than my solo Bostons. They were fun, they were cool, but this was something else,” Danny said.

Raising awareness

The Connolly brothers’ marathons have helped raise money for several organizations.

In addition to the Hoyt Foundation, they have brought in funds for Achilles Utah, the local chapter of Achilles International that helps people with disabilities participate in mainstream athletics. Insurance doesn’t cover all of Brian’s needs, so his family set up the Brian Connolly MS Fund, the proceeds of which go to pay his caregivers.

Achilles Utah hosts a run for people with disabilities at hilly Sugar House Park on Saturday mornings from April through September. Brian and Danny do some training there.

In 2024, Brian testified at a Utah House committee hearing in favor of a bill that would have provided more funds to assist adults with disabilities with non-medical care needs. It failed to advance.

“There were other people that testified and talked about how they need a whole team of people just to get out of the door in the morning,“ he said. ”And that’s where I am. I’m a very difficult patient. I have people come take care of me that have been doing it for 20 years and they say I might have been the toughest one."

People now recognize both Danny and Brian from their marathons. It brought them unexpected attention as well as donations to help people with disabilities.

“We’re like a little team now,” Danny said. “As long as he can keep doing it, as long as I can keep doing it, let’s do it.”