MBF hitting the ground running

The Matt Brown Foundation (MBF) will be hitting the Boston Marathon again this year for the second time.

Brown and his runner, Lucas Carr, will be running the 26.2 miles of the marathon to raise funds for the MBF, which helps provide equipment, medical care, and support to residents fighting paralysis.

Brown suffered a spinal cord injury in 2010 during a high school game, and in 2020, and started the MBF to help others facing the same struggles. Since then, the foundation has provided funds for wheelchairs, vehicles, lifts, playgrounds and other accessibility necessities for those in need.

For the Boston Marathon this year, Brown said Carr is doing the heavy training.

“He’s in the gym two times a day, but with his tree company business, this winter was really, really hard,” he said. “He was at it most of February and all of March. Training for him was really, really difficult. But in true Lucas Carr fashion, he’d be down on the Cape for 12 hours and then be back at the gym, late at night, just to have his body ready for Marathon Monday. We owe so much to Lucas.”

“I joke around, because everyone asks, ‘What’s the training regimen?’ and Lucas and I try to get out there as much as we can, pre-Marathon,” he said. “He’s the one in the gym, and for me, I’m just trying to be as light as I can be come Marathon Monday so that pushing up those hills isn’t too hard on him.”

Brown said the team is shaping up to be an effort from all over Massachusetts. He said they have two Norwood runners, Joey O’Connor and Dan Farrell, who will be joined by West Roxbury’s Dan O’Leary, Matt Haley from Weymouth, and Mason Jones from Atlanta.

“We’re really starting to branch out of the Norwood area, getting more and more team members who might start off complete strangers, but at the end come out as a big support system,” he said. “And it’s all about growing that support system far and wide.”

Brown said he wanted to thank the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) and Bank of America for getting the team into the Marathon.

“I can’t thank Bank of America and the BAA enough for allowing us to have a spot in the official charity program again,” he said. “They’ve been so gracious for allowing us five bibs in each of the last two Boston Marathons. And that has allowed us to up our grant program.”

Speaking of that support, Brown said last year he saw so many familiar faces from Norwood throughout the course cheering on Lucas, himself, and the team.

“For 26.2 miles, you’re seeing folks sprinkled thorughout the race route in Wellesley, Natick, Newton, and it’s just so great to see how strong the Norwood community is, but also the folks screaming for the MBF,” he said. “Those are the gestures that we see from Hopkinton to Boston that truly get in there and finish strong.”

Brown said in 2024, before they did the Marathon, the MBF issued $130,000 in grants to those fighting paralysis.

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“Getting into the official charity program last year allowed us to increase that number, in 2025 alone, to $238,000,” he said. “So much of that was because of the official charity program.”

To help raise funds for MBF, go to https://gvimes.link/mbfmarathon

Coming up, Brown said the group is already looking to the future, with a new annual 5K fundraiser in Norwood. He said the course will be a somewhat smaller version of the annual Norwood Turkey Trot, which is a five-mile race rather than a 5K, but that doesn’t mean the hills around the Norwood High School will be any shorter.

“On Sunday, June 7, we’ll have our first 5K and we’re a bit new to this process and a way to get more of the community involved,” he said. “The run, walk and roll aspect of it will allow so many people to come out and hopefully grow our community a little bit more and more and more involved.”

For more information on the new 5K, go to https://gvimes.link/mbf5k