When I decided to chronicle my journey as a first time
marathoner for all of you, I had three primary goals.
First, to allow my family and friends –many of who live far
outside the Boston area – to cheer me on from afar and follow my training and
learn more about the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge.
Second, in hopes of inspiring or providing more information to anyone who might be considering applying for a future DFMC season – particularly as I gained the final courage to push “send” on my own application after reading about other runners experiences with the DFMC.
Finally, to keep myself accountable – because it is far too
easy to let yourself down but by sharing this journey publicly I knew that when
things got tough (and they did) I could not and would not let all of you down
by quitting.
So with these goals in mind, in the days after receiving the
notification that I had been selected for this year’s DFMC team I started
imagining all the wonderful posts I would craft for all of you. Recaps after
every group run, witty commentary on the trials and errors of a first time
marathoner, pictures, videos –oh the fun we would have!
And then…well, I started training for a marathon.
And then…well, I started training for a marathon.
To say that this journey has consumed me these past few
months would be an understatement. And how could it not? There is a reason it
is not called the “Dana-Farber Marathon Experience” or the “Dana-Farber
Marathon Commitment.” It is called the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, because
it is indeed a challenge in every sense of the term. Raising thousands of
dollars to support vital research while training through a record setting winter was not for the faint of
heart. But without a doubt this has been the most rewarding challenge of my life thus far, and I
am not sure that anything I write here will ever fully capture what this team,
this mission, and this journey have come to mean to me.
And so while many of the posts and reflections that sounded
so good in my head during those long runs never actually made it onto the screen
thanks to the post-run fog I would immediately fall into upon returning home,
well…rest assured it’s not because there hasn’t been an abundance of things to
share with all of you. I have just been a tad bit busy becoming an almost marathoner. In the next two weeks I will do my best to catch us up and embrace the taper (the time where we
reduce our training and mileage to rest up for the marathon while
attempting to distract ourselves and our nerves).
But for now, I am in Eugene, OR visiting two very special
training “coaches” who are demanding morning snuggles, and who am I to ignore
coach’s orders?
T-Minus 2 Weeks!!!
but the last 26.2 are merely the celebration of all the miles and memories from this journey!