Brian Morel had been an endurance athlete for twenty-plus years, competing in races of all distances. Then in 2020, he was diagnosed with an ascending aortic aneurysm and in 2022 had open heart surgery to repair the aneurysm. After careful training and collaboration with his medical team, he ran his first marathon post-open heart surgery at the 2024 New York Marathon, as part of The John Ritter Foundation’s “Team Ritter.”