An Inspiration for Us All

In addition to another storm earlier this week (no surprise!) and a speed workout on the Tufts track, we had a team meeting last night.  This was unlike any other team meeting I've experienced the last 2+ years, all due to the bombings last April. At this meeting 2 team members, both trauma counselors, talked about resilience, coping with trauma and how different people respond to such events. They then introduced Patrick, Jess & Rescue (their service dog); Patrick proceeded to tell us their story.

Forewarning, while not exactly graphic, some of the following may not be comfortable for everyone.

Patrick, a Cambridge native and Boston College graduate, talked about growing up in the area with the Boston Marathon.  He talked about watching the marathon during his years at BC and deciding to run it his senior year, struggling with the other 'humans' (i.e. not elites), but finishing with the support of his friends.  Patrick continued his story of meeting Jess in DC and living in Boston.  They were married in late summer 2012 and in early 2013 learned that they would be moving to San Francisco for Patrick's residency in the summer.  As the marathon approached, knowing it could be their last one in Boston, they headed to the finish line to cheer us 'humans' on.  As you can imagine, their story is inspiring because they were injured in the bombings. On 4.15.13, they each lost their left legs below the knee.

Patrick proceeded to talk about how he was knocked out & remembers little from that day, how Jess attempted to tie a tourniquet onto his leg while others put out the fire that was on her legs and how they have continued to overcome their physical injuries with ongoing PT, 15 surgeries each and relearning how to walk.  Mentally, Jess, a registered nurse, and Patrick, a doctoral student in clinical psychology, have a unique perspective on their recovery. As Patrick spoke, he did so with humor, humility and awe of those he has interacted with over the last year. While I could go into more details, perhaps more appropriate is the general feeling of awe, sympathy and inspiration that Patrick generated in us runners.

There are many inspirational stories: from last year's bombings, from runners on the team who are cancer survivors or have run for 20+ year and from our own lives.  As we run throughout training and on April 21, all of these will help us cross the finish line. Thank you for helping us achieve that goal.

Some additional links related to Patrick and Jess:
Article on Rescue, their service dog
Jess's Flashmob for Patrick
Boston Globe article on Patrick and Jess

A Run Before Another Storm

After the last year's training season, I was hopeful that this year would be a bit easier and conducive to team runs.  Thus far, it has not been the case.  In 2013, DFMC cancelled 4 group runs, the most ever for the team.  Including this weekend, DFMC has already cancelled 3 group runs unfortunately.

With the storm on Thursday, Boston received more snow followed by rain, not a great combination for runners.  As a weekend storm approached on Saturday afternoon, we hit the roads on Saturday AM in cold conditions, but no wind.  After the Thursday storm, the sidewalks were in ok shape, but still plenty of areas that were not cleared and thus forced running in the street.  After making our way to the Charles River and finding relatively clear conditions, we joined a host of other runners along the Charles and enjoyed the scenery.  The downside of running along the Charles is the lack of hills, but it was a nice change of pace from the last few weeks.

After running the Charles path, we headed to downtown Boston and then the Seaport.  One of the nice things about running early on a Sat AM is the relatively few people on the sidewalks and streets.  Making our way back to South Boston, Amy and I rounded Castle Island and Fort Independence.  As we had not run any hills, we finished by running up Dorchester Heights - running up is hard enough, I can't imagine getting a cannon to the top of hill!  Having run nearly 17 miles, we finished the run at Dunkin Donuts before starting to refuel with a well deserved breakfast and coffee.

This week will include another speed workout at Tufts track and hopefully a group run next weekend of ~18miles.  With 9 weeks to go to the marathon, I'm looking forward to receiving my DFMC singlet this week. Below is taken from FoxBoston as they unveiled the DFMC singlets:

"This year is the first year after the Boston Marathon bombings, so the singlet pays tribute to the 2013 Boston Marathon with its color scheme, and also puts the Boston city skyline along the sides, designed to "give each teammate a symbolic 'hug' as they return to the storied race," a statement from the cancer center read.

2014 also marks Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's 25th year participating in the marathon.  Runners for the team raise money for the Claudia Adams Barr Program, which funds cancer research."

Why We Run

It's been 2 weeks since my last post so there's a lot to cover.  At the same time I'll try to be on point with few tangents so it doesn't take all day to read :)  I already wrote about the Patient Partner Match Party 2 weeks ago but didn't post a picture of the whole group.  With over 700 runners on the team this year, the Patient Parter Program is even bigger than ever and a good looking bunch. 

Runners and Patients Kicking Off Another Great Season

In addition to the Patient Partner Program and what it means to me & many of us runners, we had a team meeting and heard from Ron, a teammate who briefly spoke about his wife who is battling lung cancer.  As a result of the innovative research at Dana-Farber, Ron's wife is responding well in an ongoing clinical trial.  An example of such a novel approach includes Cancer Immunotherapy, which was named breakthrough of the year in 2013 by Science magazine.

After the team meeting, Amy and I headed out to CA to run the Surf City 1/2 Marathon in Huntington Beach.  Like past years, we got to see family and this year got to see my niece as well!  Thinking of her future and all the benefits that will come from the current resarch activities at DFCI and elsewhere made us both smile.

The morning of the race, we were up at 5.30 and at the start by 7am.  Though Amy and I were happy to be running the 1/2, we were a bit shocked that it was actually warmer by a few degrees in Boston than in CA!  Luckily, as the sun came out and the race got under way, the temps rose and we had a great time running.

Starting the 1/2 at 8AM

Gotta love the surf board medal!

Upon returning to Boston, we knew we were back in New England as the plane landed in falling snow.  Two days later Boston got a wet and heavy 8" of snow.  This resulted in DFMC team coordinators canceling our group run this weekend; too many people had not shoveled their sidewalks and it was too dangerous for all of us to run in the road.  Luckily, we had some awesome volunteers at both ends of the Newton Hills braving the single digit wind chills and we ended up running back and forth a few times.  It was a bit repetitive, but great to see so many DFMC teammates and other marathoners doing the same repeats as us.  At one end of the hills is the Newton firehouse (mile 17 of the marathon course) and a good place for a photo op...

With only 10 weeks to go to the marathon, there's still more work to do and miles to cover.  So why do we run through the winter and snow storms for a chance to run another 26.2 miles in April?  To support our patient partners, to support Ron's wife by raising funds for innovative cancer research, to develop better treatments for the future and to return after last year.  As we started running yesterday, a BC student was walking toward us and noted me wearing last year's BAA marathon jacket.  As we passed, he said "I hope you're running again this year." Of course, and then we had 16miles to reflect on why we were running.