Monday Motivation: First Day of Training Edition!

Today is a very special edition of Monday Motivation as it is also marks our first official day of training for the 2015 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge!  T-Minus 18 weeks until we take to Boston's fabled course with an aim of raising $5.2 billion along the way to help us reach the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer.

As our training kicks into full gear, keep checking back here for updates, pictures, and more. Starting this Sunday I will also begin posting weekly training recaps for anyone who has ever wondered what it takes to conquer a marathon. Like most of my teammates, I fall somewhere between the novice and intermediate training plans designed for us by our advisor Jack Fultz, who recommends that we take a look at each week's goal and determine a middle ground mileage wise that feels best for each of us. Today the novice schedule called for 3-4 miles with walking breaks as needed and the intermediate called for 4-5 miles with strides in between (strides mean you increase/decrease your speed in the middle of the run- this helps with both endurance and increasing your speed over time). Given I am coming off a weekend of pre-training holiday debauchery and indulgence, I decided to keep an easy and steady pace, running 4.35 miles. I also walked 1.4 miles at a brisk pace to/from a 50 minute pilates class for core and strength training. This is right within what I have been doing to maintain my mileage base prior to starting official training (20-25 miles per week and pilates 3-5 times per week), but it still felt exciting to log my first official training run!  

And there is no better way to stay motivated for the next 18 weeks than to look back at the history and impact of the DFMC program. While I have been sharing individual impact statements each Monday that give a glimpse at some of the Barr research projects funded by the challenge, the below graphic prepared for last year's 25th anniversary running really shows how much the challenge and its impact have grown through the years: 

Pretty motivating stuff and I am honored to help continue and grow the DFMC legacy as it heads into its 26th year.  

1 day down and 124 days to go!  

Click HERE to make a gift in support of Erin's Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge

Click HERE to Sponsor-a-Mile with a gift of $126.20 or more

No Turning Back Now!

I guess this means it's officially official guys.  Good thing since our 18 week training starts on Monday!

Click HERE to make a gift in support of Erin's Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge

Click HERE to Sponsor-a-Mile with a gift of $126.20 or more

Motivation Monday

As we rapidly approach the start of our "official" training one week from today, I find this motivation particularly fitting: 

However it is that much easier to stay committed when I know that the DFMC supports such ground breaking research. As I share these impact statements each week, keep in mind that research such as this is much like the marathon itself. There are no sprints on the course to new discoveries in the fight against cancer - rather, these investigators must maintain a steady pace and go the distance, no matter the obstacles and no matter how long it takes them to reach the finish line.  

Such as Rosalind Segal, MD, PhD, who was supported by the Barr Program in 1998-2000 and 2002-‘04 and worked to discover new pathways in brain cancers.  This research led directly to promising new clinical trials for the nearly 23,000 patients who develop these diseases every year.

Brain cancer remains one of the most difficult cancers to treat and is responsible for more

than 13,000 deaths annually. Dr. Segal discovered that a genetic pathway called “Notch” is consistently damaged in brain tumors. Drugs already exist for other diseases to target Notch, and

exciting new clinical trials are now underway to explore opportunities to now use these

drugs for brain cancer patients. This has the potential to significantly improve survival for

this devastating cancer.

I am proud to be supporting investigators such as Dr. Segal, and beyond grateful to those of you who have already helped me reach 28% towards my goal of raising $10,000 to fund this vital research- and all before our official training has even started!  There is nothing more motivating than knowing that together, we are helping to change and save lives.  

Monday Motivation

First, I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We spent the holiday with my family in Upstate New York and I squeezed in some wonderful runs, including my first snowy run (which was AWESOME). And yeah, I can't believe I grew up with all of that beauty surrounding me and took it for granted! It was so stunningly peaceful and quiet, and I loved every second. 

 

Over the river and through the woods, on a six mile run I go...

And now suddenly it is December 1st! What??? Which means two things:

1. Our "official" marathon training begins two weeks from today! Woohoo!
2. It is Monday...so it's time for some motivation! 

As you know, 100% of the funds raised by the DFMC benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. As such, I am continuing to share some of the impact these vital projects have had, because nothing is more motivating than learning how your generous gifts help push us towards the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer.  

Today, I would like to highlight the work of  Dr. Martin Sattler on DNA Pathways and Drug Resistance in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia. Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a slowly progressing form of leukemia in which too many white blood cells are made in the bone marrow and accumulate in the blood. Although bone marrow transplant is the only known curative therapy for CML, the revolutionary drug Gleevec, developed in collaboration with DFCI investigators, has shown remarkable results in some patients. However, those who do respond to Gleevec often develop resistance to the drug, which leads to disease progression. Thus, there is a need to develop new, targeted therapies against CML to combat resistance. Martin Sattler, PhD, and his team are studying he underlying DNA damage and DNA repair mechanisms in CML cells. This basic science is essential to understand these altered DNA repair pathways and their role in drug-resistance. Dr. Sattler’s findings will potentially fuel the development of drugs that inhibit these processes and prevent or delay drug resistance. Additionally, this research is likely to be relevant to other cancers that are driven by similar genomic instability. 

Wow. Pretty awesome stuff.  

And the below?  Well that pretty much sums up why I am doing this challenge.  

Disclaimer: Someone remind me to read this post in a few weeks when it is twenty degrees cooler and the snow has turned turned to slushy muck rendering it slightly less blissful than my fist snowy run. Deal? Thanks.  Until then, lacing 'em up and loving winter running. 

Motivation Monday

Where we are headed into a holiday week with lots of tempting treats, what better motivation than to share the impact of Dr. Bruce Spiegelman's research on the link between obesity and cancer, which determined why obesity is a risk factor in 10-15% of human cancers. Dr. Spiegelman's research, supported by the Barr program in 2005, demonstrated that obesity causes many body-wide alterations in metabolism, hormone levels, and inflammation, and that these abnormalities may affect the development and progression of cancers. Determining the link between obesity and these cancers could be instrumental to inhibiting cancer development in both obese and non-obese people, leading to the potential for major breakthroughs in the development of new ways to treat and prevent cancer.

Something to think about when reaching for that second helping of mashed potatoes...or rather, to give you motivation to go run them off after!

Oh and since we're talking second helpings of mashed potatoes - why not a second helping of motivation to go with it?

Wherever you find yourself running (and eating mashed potatoes) this week, I wish you and your families a blessed and happy Thanksgiving holiday. We have so much to be thankful for, and I am particularly thankful for my health and all of you!

New and Improved Monday Motivation

Happy Monday everyone!  This past week we had our first DFMC team meeting (a more complete recap forthcoming...it's been a busy week!) and it inspired me to reformat my Monday Motivation. Since the BIGGEST motivation is knowing that I am helping my team to raise over $5.3 billion dollars to fund cutting edge cancer research, I am going to start including some of the impact statements that give a sense for the truly life changing and saving research being done through the Barr Program, which receives 100% of the funds raised by the DFMC.

For example, the 2008 Barr research project of Loren Walensky, MD, PhD.  Dr. Walensky's project 

focused on the development of new therapies with the potential to reactivate the “executioner” function of cancer cells and prevent their uncontrollable growth.

All living cells contain “executioner proteins” that help control the growth of normal cells. 

Cancer cells find a way to prevent activation of these proteins, enabling them to replicate 

uncontrollably. Dr. Walensky generated novel compounds that bind to these proteins in cancer cells, reactivating their “executioner” function and triggering cell death. By integrating chemistry, biology and cancer medicine, this work has the potential to create groundbreaking new therapies for multiple types of cancer, many of which no longer respond to conventional therapies.

And NONE of that research - or that which has been done in the other amazing projects you will learn about each week - could have happened without the generous gifts from donors like you!

I am sure Dr. Walensky and so many other talented and dedicated researchers have had days where they were unsure whether their hard work would make a difference. But they push on undeterred, keeping the ultimate goal and finish line (a world without cancer) on the horizon, and their work has had tremendous and far reaching impact. Could you imagine what would have happened if they just gave up when it got hard?  Not an option.  So yes, while I will certainly have days where I am unsure whether I can raise $10,000 and run 26.2 miles, seeing the true impact this challenge makes is all the motivation I need.  

www.RunDFMC/org/2015/erincollins

Monday Motivation