We signed up for the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge in 2015 to honor Michele’s mom Maryellen by raising money for innovative cancer research while running the Boston Marathon. In the years that followed, we committed significant portions of our winters (and summer during covid 🤪) to training for 8 marathons and with your support raised over $80,000 for Dana-Farber. What a significant amount! 100% of this money goes directly to innovative basic cancer research, helping fund the early scientific discoveries that have developed into more than 8 breakthrough treatments available now.
While we have not participated in the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge the past few years, our commitment to this cause has not waned, only grown stronger. The story has certainly changed, and those impacted by cancer diagnoses and treatments has continued to grow closer and closer, expanding into our friend groups, our coworkers, our family friends, our extended family, and again, and again, into our immediate family.
This year I have trained to run the NYC Half instead of the Boston full. It has been 15 years since I've trained this hard, and with this much focus. Over this 18-week training cycle, I will run more than 500 miles, which is about 4 hours per week. I've never enjoyed listening to music while running, always listening to my surroundings, and finding myself in a meditative state. The runs of this cycle, the progress I've made as a result, and most of all the commitment to just get out there, have been inspired by the simultaneous and current cancer journeys of my father (and his father before him), my father-in-law, my coworker, and two of my uncles.
Each has their own story: their own journey, their own family, their own diagnosis, their own treatment plan. They are unique and they are also similar. One similarity is that they've inspired me to keep running, and to keep pushing: for more and better cancer treatments.
Thank you for your continued support. I lean on your support when it's cold out. When I'm tired. When I'm sore. When I don't want to run. When I don't want to update my fundraising page. When I don't want to send a fundraising email. Your donations of all sizes help us build towards this important initiative.
