Obtainable? You better believe it!
Easy to do by yourself? Not so much.
Knowing that team structure and camaraderie would be integral components for succeeding in this challenge, I eagerly awaited our first team meeting which took place in November.While the informative email blasts, DFMC team website, and other resources we starting receiving in September (when I learned I had been accepted to the team) have been a wonderful resource, there was nothing like finally getting to meet our fearless leaders and fellow teammates in person!
DFMC Team Meeting #1: November 12, 2014
Our first team meeting was held in the Jimmy Fund Auditorium at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and, of course, I got lost on my way there. While I had failed to anticipate additional time needed to navigate the Dana-Farber campus, my detour did allow me to see some beautiful and inspiring tributes such as the PMC Bridge to Progress and the Gene Display. Two helpful security guards, three elevator rides, and a sprint across a connecting bridge later, I found where I needed to be.
The meeting had just gotten underway so I quickly signed in and slapped on my name tag before finding a seat in the back of the auditorium. Recognizing Dana-Farber running program director Jan Ross from when we met during the Boston Half-Marathon, I couldn't help but smile as she took to the podium and introduced the rest of the amazing running programs staff, the inspiring and motivating DFMC board, and our training advisor Jack Fultz. Jan welcomed us to the team and announced that we are just about 500 members strong with teammates from over 33 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Denmark, Indonesia, Israel, and Mexico- wow!!! I breathed a tiny sigh of relief when it was announced that 54% of this year's team are first-timers such as myself and 46% are veteran runners (phew- I am not the only newbie!).
Next we reviewed our welcome packets, DFMC website navigation, and other resources for both fundraising and training (all very important and necessary for this journey). I knew this would be a special and life changing experience in many, many ways, but as we learned more about the legacy and impact of the program through it's 26 year history, the true magnitude of what we are helping to accomplish became clear and I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. Hearing board members speak fondly of how they came to join the DFMC family - and also of loved ones and former teammates lost to cancer - reminded me that this experience is so much bigger than just one person, one milestone, one race, or one finish line. With each speaker and segment it became easy to see why this has become such an important and special part of many people's lives - just as it is now becoming for me and others in what has been dubbed "the freshman class."
It was a relief to hear our training advisor Jack Fultz and veteran runners tell us it is okay to wonder how in the heck we are going to run this thing but then assure us that we can, and we will. My nervous laughter was in good company with that of fellow first-timers seated nearby as we soaked in every detail about the journey that awaits us.
Lastly we learned that it is tradition to grab a few post-meeting beers together at Boston Beer Works. Speaking afterwards with fellow newbies we all agreed that we knew there would be a lot of hard work put into fundraising and training, but nobody had told us there would be beer! What's not to love about that?! Maybe this won't be so hard after all...
I will wrap this recap with my favorite quotes from the first meeting:
I will wrap this recap with my favorite quotes from the first meeting:
"There are no strangers here...just friends you haven't met yet."
"You thought you were joining a marathon team but you are joining a fundraising team that is helping to save lives...and if we do a really, really, really good job they throw us this HUGE party along 26 miles in Boston sometime in April, and all these people come out to cheer for us - it's awesome."
"You thought you were joining a marathon team but you are joining a fundraising team that is helping to save lives...and if we do a really, really, really good job they throw us this HUGE party along 26 miles in Boston sometime in April, and all these people come out to cheer for us - it's awesome."
2015 DFMC Team Meeting #1