it's all about the kids

Last weekend I finally got to meet my little Patient Partner, Theo! Theo is two years old, and lives in the Boston area with his older brother and parents--he is also a patient at the Dana Farber Jimmy Fund clinic, which is how we both became involved with the Patient Partner Program. DFMC has a program to pair runners with patient children, and Theo and I got to spend a wonderful morning at the Children's Museum at the first event, the meet your match party! He has a ton of energy, and his questions about firetrucks and cameras and elevators kept me on my toes all morning.

We had a great time with the Dr. Seuss activities, looking at all the birds and ships out the window, and playing beach ball challenges with the other runners and patient partners. Theo even asked if I would "come to my house to play and eat food", but told me I would have to "make sure and leave my shoes outside". What a polite young man! Throughout the season we'll be gathering again with our matches to have pizza and make posters, for the giant DFMC pasta part on marathon eve, and they will all be gathered at a special DFMC cheering station in Kenmore Square (mile 25) on Marathon Monday. If that's not motivation for the first 25 miles, I don't know what is! I am proud to be running in honor of both Theo and my Aunt Karen in this marathon challenge: they are both fighting tough battles with cancer, and I remember that often no matter how hard my training workouts get. You can see more photos of Theo and the Meet your Match party here.

I also got to meet the wonderful Sarah Nixon on Thursday at Crossroads, and we got talking about her fantastic program for young girls in Boston: Fit Girls! The program combines health and fitness with community outreach for girls in grades 4 + 5...and the more we talked, the more I thought about what an exciting program this is: it combines running, reading and kids, and I can't think of three things that I am more passionate about! Sarah is a fellow DFMC teammate (and an incredibly fast one), and and librarian, and she started the organization herself in 2002. I am so excited to become involved with Fit Girls...maybe first as a 'race buddy' for the girls doing their first 5k, and hopefully soon trying to bring the program to MY school!

And finally, on the training front: yesterday I did a long (and fast) 17.7 mile run with Katie, Ben, and fellow Bowdoinite Chris at the DFMC group run. We trekked 8.8 miles out Comm Ave to Wellesley, then turned around and did the same thing in reverse (which meant hitting the Newton Hills TWICE). It was fast, but fun...which means today I am both sore and satisfied.