I'm back!!

Yes, that's right - I'm officially back with the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge team for round 2 of the Boston Marathon!  For those of you who tracked me last year, I had a site on Shutterfly but decided to switch over to blogspot in hopes of motivating myself to make updating and chronicling the next few months a more regular habit  : )  Also, there are several of my DFMC teammates who have blogs, so be sure to check them out as well!  I'm hoping to familiarize myself with the site so in theory I'll have links to their pages on here within a few days.  But before I go too much farther - a quick review of last year running with DFMC.

I first found out about the DFMC program because a friend of mine had run for them two years ago, and from the moment I found out about it I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.  I've been a hockey player since pretty much birth - and running has never come naturally to me.  But there was something about the challenge of running a marathon that intrigued me.  Combine that with the cause of running for Dana Farber, one of the premier cancer institutes in the world, and I was sold.

Months after making that decision to run my perspective had changed.  I was always excited about raising money for Dana Farber - two of my aunts had been treated there, along with many other friends and friends of friends.  I had always known it was a great cause - but it was sometime during Marathon weekend when I truly realized what the DFMC team meant to each of the former or current cancer patient.  Perhaps it was during the DFMC pasta dinner, when many Jimmy Fund patients stood onstage with glowing smiles - most of these patients were in remission, some were not.  All had hope.  Perhaps it was when I stood in the DFMC refuge along with all the other DFMC runners, each with their own reasons for running.  Or maybe it was at 5am that morning, when I pulled on my singlet that had the names and initials of family and friends who had battled/were battling cancer.  I'm not really sure - but what I am sure of it that when I was halfway through the marathon and began to have stomach problems I knew that I couldn't quit.

I wasn't aiming for a lightning fast time to begin with - but after miles of stopping at each porta potty and terrible cramping, I was far behind my target pace.  But it really didn't matter - I ended up finishing in 5 hours and 56 minutes.  What really mattered though, was the support that each of you had contributed to over the several months prior to actual race day.  I had contributed roughly $5,200 to the DFMC team - and as a whole, we raised a record breaking $4,556,954.60 - 100% of which went directly to the Claudia Adams Barr Program for basic cancer research.  That's what truly mattered - that together we were making strides to beat a disease that will affect 1 in 3 people at some point during their lifetime.  And that's precisely why I'm back for more!  So I'm asking for your help, after all I couldn't do it without your support!  Please visit My Fundraising Page to donate online or for more information on other ways to donate!  Thanks you in advance for your support...each dollar is bringing us closer to a cure!