Copyright Reading Eagle
For information on submitting an obituary, please contact Reading Eagle by phone at 610-371-5018, or email at obituaries@readingeagle.com or fax at 610-371-5193. Most obituaries published in the Reading Eagle are submitted through funeral homes and cremation services, but we will accept submissions from families. Obituaries can be emailed to obituaries@readingeagle.com. In addition to the text of the obituary, any photographs that you wish to include can be attached to this email. Please put the text of the obituary in a Word document, a Google document or in the body of the email. The Reading Eagle also requires a way to verify the death, so please include either the phone number of the funeral home or cremation service that is in charge of the deceased's care or a photo of his/her death certificate. We also request that your full name, phone number and address are all included in this email. All payments by families must be made with a credit card. We will send a proof of the completed obituary before we require payment. The obituary cannot run, however, until we receive payment in full. Obituaries can be submitted for any future date, but they must be received no later than 3:00 p.m. the day prior to its running for it to be published. Please call the obituary desk, at 610-371-5018, for information on pricing. For Brendan Morgan, moving forward means everything. It’s a physical exercise to which he’s devoted years of training, breaking down and rebuilding his body until he could weather running ultramarathons of dozens to hundreds of miles. It’s a mental exercise, through which he’s spurred himself to dispel addiction and suicidal thoughts. And it’s an exercise in connection, of using his life and example to spread a simple message: With effort, extreme pain can be overcome. “I wanted to do something that I hated doing every single day like I love it,” Morgan said. “Just to push past the barrier of always falling back into old habits. I started running because I hated it.” Today, Morgan’s relationship with running has evolved dramatically. “Running has made me a better person,” Morgan said. “I couldn’t see myself not being able to run.” In two years, the 27-year-old Wyomissing native went from the gym treadmill to ultramarathons of dizzying distance. And on Nov. 8, Morgan embarked on his greatest challenge yet — a 341-mile-long run across the entirety of Pennsylvania. “(It’s the longest I’ve ever run) by far,” Morgan said. “The highest mileage I did in a week (before) was 120.” Now, Morgan’s pace is set to 60 miles per day as he makes the trip from outside of Pittsburgh to Washington Crossing, Bucks County. The goal, Morgan said, is mental health advocacy. “I just want people to take a step and know that it’s going to be scary, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but we all go through it, and they’re not alone,” Morgan said. Morgan encouraged those interested to come out and run with him, which is possible thanks to a online GPS tracker that allows viewers to follow his journey in real time. “It might look like I’m alone, but I’m not alone,” Morgan said. “I’d be nothing without my crew and my support team. That’s kind of the point I want to get across to people.” The run also serves as a fundraiser for the National Alliance of Mental Illness, a nonprofit that offers education, support and resources through mental health initiatives across the nation. “I want to help out as many people (as possible), however I can,” Morgan said. Coping with loss Morgan’s struggles started at a young age. He lost his father and brother to suicide, when he was 8 and 13, respectively. “I hear my mom on the phone with 911, saying he (my brother) overdosed,” Morgan said. “I walk upstairs and he’s laying in his bed with a pool of foam around his mouth. A bottle of sleeping pills was open next to him. Finishing that year of middle school was rough.” He said his brother became his role model after his father died, and Morgan turned to drugs like Adderall, cocaine and alcohol to numb the trauma. “When I was a sophomore, I tried to take my own life,” Morgan said. “Luckily, it failed. That was my lowest point.” That moment was enough to turn Morgan away from the drugs. He transitioned away from drinking too, only to replace it with another vice — food. “I used food to cope with the issues I refused to deal with,” Morgan said. “I went from 160 pounds to 218 in the span of a year and a half. I didn’t want to look myself in the mirror.” A new direction Morgan’s journey in a new direction started in 2021, when he finally faced his reflection. “My friends would make fun of me,” he said. “One day, I was like, ‘They’re right, I am fat, and I’m just not doing anything that makes me happy.’” He said he bought home workout equipment out of anxiety over the reception he would get at a public gym, but that eventually changed. “The first year and a half (of working out) I did it all in my mom’s basement,” Morgan said. “I finally went one day with a coworker. It was nothing like I pictured it. The community was loving and accepting, and I fell in love with going to the gym.” Morgan’s gym community encouraged him to get into running. He embraced the sport in 2023, despite some initial apprehension. “I started running because I hated it,” Morgan said. “I was never an athlete. I started on the treadmill. The second month, I made it a goal to hit 100 miles of running. That’s when I started to get more interested.” Running miles at time encouraged him to push his body further, and Morgan soon found himself signing up for the Philadelphia Marathon. “I went from my couch to a marathon as my first-ever race,” Morgan said. “Man, it’s been a crazy three years.” To prepare for the 341-mile journey across Pennsylvania, Morgan undertook a 16-week, 1,400-mile training block. “I was averaging about 87 miles per week,” Morgan said. He said the impacts of long-distance running on the body can vary. “You kind of have to ride the ups and downs,” Morgan said. “There might be a point where you feel like you can’t even walk. Thirty minutes later, you’ll be cruising like nothing happened.” The longer runs are interspersed with breaks for refueling. “I eat like a horse (when I rest),” Morgan said. “The goal for ultrarunning is you want to eat as much as possible as soon as possible. I try to maintain like 500 calories an hour from solids and liquids.” He said the strain on the body during an ultramarathon happens more gradually, as opposed to shorter marathons. “You’re not running as hard so you’re not exerting as much,” Morgan said. “It’s a slow decrease in energy, but if you don’t keep up with it, it will bite you in the worst way.” By midafternoon Tuesday, Morgan was more than 200 miles into his run, moving at a steady pace east of Carlisle, Cumberland County, according to his GPS tracker. He said his run will likely take him down Penn Avenue in West Reading, likely on Nov. 12, and continuing through Berks and Montgomery counties to his destination. He said he hopes his run inspires people to pursue what they love in life, even if it makes them uncomfortable. “I’m no different than anybody else, I’ve been through it all,” Morgan said. “It’s uncomfortable to admit you’re struggling and not OK. We’re all humans and we have the same struggles. The end goal is just to try to help as many people as I can. I think running is a great tool to do that.”
