2 reasons and $4200 later...

With track workouts and long runs behind us, I spent a pretty painful hour on the massage table today. Calves, lower back, hammies, you name it--they were all tight. While trying to distract myself and ignore the pain, I actually got thinking more deeply about pain...and in turn, how I ended up on that massage table and doing this whole DFMC thing to begin with. It all comes down to two simple reasons.

1) The reason I am running a marathon.
Most of you know about my broken neck and shoulder from the bike accident of 2007. It was during that recovery period, when I was out of work for weeks, and doing physical therapy for even longer, that I decided to commit myself to this running thing.

I'd always liked running, and had been casually saying for years "someday I hope I will run a marathon". Well, 10 weeks of a neck brace and zero physical activity leave a lot of time for thinking. "I hope" became "I WILL" pretty darn fast.

Three months of PT later, and I could finally run again. Within a month I signed up for the 2008 Chicago Marathon...and haven't stopped running since. If I hadn't had that accident, I'm not sure I ever would have picked a time and a place to actually do it.

2) The reason I am running a marathon for Dana Farber.
Love. Fear. Empowerment. Worry. Helplessness. Hope. Perseverance.
When someone you love has cancer, it's impossible not to feel all of these things at once. It's a strange thing to see the people in your life that are meant to be the stable and responsible ones suddenly need the very support and stability they've always offered. Because I live in Boston and Aunt Karen lives in northern Maine, I obviously couldn't be there during her treatments. So this--fundraising and training for the DFMC--was the next best thing.

While I have spent the past 5 months running in hopes of crossing the finish line on Boylston Street, Aunt Karen has been doing her own kind of training: fighting the disease, keeping her spirits up, managing the chemo, regaining her strength, and battling her way towards a very different finish line. She is doing fantastic with her physical therapy and strength, and even went back to work full time last week!

The support and donations I've received in honor of Aunt Karen are incredible:
people she works with in Damariscotta, Maine...
her sister Sue's friends in Newburgh and Bangor, Maine...
her sister Lauree's friends and fellow teachers in Old Town, Maine...
my parents' friends and co-workers in Portland, Maine...
my Nana's church friends...
my Bunna's Red Hat Ladies...

The list is endless. THAT is why I am running this marathon for Dana Farber.