As August progressed and turned to September, I was undecided about running DFMC again this year. I believe in the cause and charity, I'm willing to put in the work and do the fundraising, but the inner drive was a bit less. I knew I could churn through another year, but that wasn't enough. On top of that, Amy and I were expecting our first child in the fall. I wasn't sure what training might be like with an infant or if Amy would be willing to pick up my slack in parenting while I was out training.
With these thoughts, concerns, and uncertainty, I knew I would run for DFMC again at some point, but I wanted to run for a reason. At around this time, my colleagues and I received an e-mail from Chris that he had made the hard decision to leave his position. Given this new information, I talked with Amy about running and then asked Chris and his family if he would like me to run.
I ran my first 5 DFMCs for my patient partner RJ and he continues to do great and thrive after a leukemia diagnosis when he was a kid. I ran #6 in 2018 for Heather Thomson. Unfortunately, Heather lost her battle to breast cancer during the training season thought she motivated me throughout the windy, rainy and cold 26.2 miles of the 2018 marathon. Running for Chris this year is what motivated me to commit. I don't know how long I may be able to run marathons, or what the future holds for my own health, so I seized this year and will run for Chris and his family.
With ~20 donors already, we've raised $1925 with a number of company matches outstanding! This is a great way to kick off the season and these funds will directly impact innovative research at Dana-Farber so that folks like Chris, Heather, RJ, and others will continue to have therapeutic options in the future. Thank you to everyone who has donated thus far!
