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…