There was a time when Brian, 64, said he felt he knew for sure what happens after death. Then, in 2013, he was diagnosed with ALS. (About 5,600 people in the US are diagnosed with the disease each year.) And despite believing he no longer had a future, he went on to run around 50 marathons after his diagnosis, and even to remarry—something he described, during this summer 2018 interview, as “a forward-looking act.”