Runner driven to help charity, salute brother

To Matthew Burdick, a 26-mile, 385-yard-run is more than a marathon.

It's a mission.

A former dean's list student and record-setting placekicker at Wake Forest University, Burdick dedicates each of his races to helping a charity and honoring his brother, Bryon, who died of leukemia in 1989.

Next on Burdick's agenda is the City of Oaks Marathon on Nov. 7 in Raleigh. By then, Burdick, who mailed about 100 letters to potential contributors, hopes to have raised at least $7,000 for the N.C. Special Olympics.

Ever the competitor, Burdick also wants to finish in three hours and five minutes, about a seven-minute-per-mile pace. But if the speed is slower, it won't diminish his good deed.

"We're grateful for all he's done,'' says Olivia Laney, senior vice president of the N.C. Special Olympics.

Burdick, 28, is a project manager at RegEd, an online compliance-finance solutions company. His penchant for running began after he graduated from Wake Forest University with bachelor's and master's degrees in education. He ran his first of six marathons four years ago and has raised more than $30,000 for charities.

Last year, Burdick didn't make his annual run. Instead he donated one of his kidneys to an area hospital, which helped prolong the life of a 32-year-old mother with three children.

"It doesn't surprise me he's doing this,'' says Jim Caldwell, who coached Burdick at Wake Forest and now is an Indianapolis Colts assistant. "He was always caring, very thoughtful [and] goal-oriented."

Bryon was role model

Growing up in Winston-Salem, Matthew and Bryon, who was two years older, had many brotherly battles in basketball and soccer. Both were highly competitive, and their parents kept exhorting Bryon: "Be nice to your little brother."

"He was relentless,'' Burdick says. "I'd like to think he could have done anything [in life]. I imagine he would have continued in sports."

When Bryon died at age 13, it all seemed surreal to Matthew, 11.

"It was hard to comprehend; it was like he had gone to camp ... and [then] was not coming back,'' Matthew says. Later he realized, "Life is a gift and can go away anytime. That's part of the reason for giving the kidney."

Nurtured through his childhood grief by steadfast, loving parents, Matthew went on to become a standout scholar-athlete at Wake Forest. But he always wanted to honor his brother.

So he entered the 2003 San Diego Marathon, dedicated the race to Bryon, and raised $11,714.20 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

In 2004, he ran the Boston Marathon and raised $4,438.66 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In 2005, he raced in Vancouver and turned in $6,346 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which helped send a family of four to Disney World for a week.

Fiery competitor

Sometimes his lungs scream for more oxygen and his legs long for rest. But a voice exhorts him to go-go-go.

"I like running, and it's easy for me to go through the pain of a marathon, knowing that it's helping somebody else,'' says Burdick, a string-bean lean 6-foot, 155-pounder with military short hair.

Zac Ziegler, a former teammate at Wake Forest and still a close friend, remembers him as hotly competitive, even in intramural games.

"Now he has become a lot more mild-tempered," Ziegler says. "Things don't get to him as much as they used to."

But his friend still sees the fire. "He's still definitely competitive," Ziegler says. "I think that's what driving him to do all that fundraising for his brother."

Burdick's wife, Keisha, uses one word to describe her husband: "selfless." She adds, "I like the way he's able to combine his passion for remembering his brother and running."