About Me

My Goal: Run the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2019 with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. Raise $17,000 (or more!) where 100% of funds raised benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. I run in honor of my friend Chris Davie who is battling brain cancer. I also run in honor for my friend RJ and his continued cancer-free life, in memory of Heather Thomson, and for other family and friends who are or have battled cancer. Together we can help Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reach the ultimate finish line: a world without cancer

Barr Program Impact Statements

Barr Program Impact Statements

Immunotherapies: New Ways to Activate the Immune System—An important area of cancer research asks why the human body's defense systems do not always attack and destroy tumors as they form. Funded by the Claudia Adams Barr Program, Glenn Dranoff, MD, discovered complex regulatory pathways in the human immune system that cancers exploit in order to escape destruction. Reversal of these effects can lead to the development of vaccines against cancer, like Provenge for prostate cancer. This research has also enabled the development of immune-activating drugs such as ipilimumab, which showed striking effects in melanoma in a trial led by Dana-Farber scientists and is now approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Training Done, Taper Begins

Yesterday was our final long training run and we hit the road aiming for 20 miles along the marathon course.  We changed things up a bit and ran with the Nike Run Club for this run.  This was a tough call as the DFMC team means so much to us, but marathon day is so different from our training runs - we're up at 5.30am, head to downtown Boston before taking a school bus to Hopkinton and finally running around 11am.  Fitting with this schedule, we were up at 5.30, took the bus/T down to Nike and then they bussed us runners out to the 4 mile mark of the marathon course where we started our run. While we didn't run the steep downhill from Hopkinton to near Framingham, we did get some work on the downhills and uphills along the way, finishing in Brookline.

Though we didn't start with the DFMC team this run, we ran into a number of teammates along the way.  Just as importantly, we saw many of the DFMC volunteers still working the water stops and supporting not only DFMC runners but all the charity runners that were along the course.  It's estimated that several 1000 runners were along the course training for April 18.  We had a great running day with temps in the 40s, overcast and a mild headwind.  If April 18 is similar, we could have a great race!


This week was also a big week as several additional donations, and 76 donations total, helped bring us above the $8k mark!!  5 years of running with DFMC, every year topping $8k! Amazing and we're close to breaking the $9k mark.  I'm hoping we can top the $9k mark before April 1 and continue right on to our $13,100 goal!

With our major training complete, we still have 3 weeks before the marathon.  I'll begin to taper down a bit, dropping the mileage a little bit each of the next 3 weeks.  I'll focus on some stretching and making sure I get enough sleep so I'm ready to go on April 18 :)


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