28 Names

I've been blogging about my training and fitness and bat-shit-craziness for quite some time now, but with the marathon now 5 days away, my mind has been more frequently turning away from my training and toward the reason I've signed up to do this three times - cancer.

Last year, the miles were hard and painful, but hearing "thank you Dana-Farber" for 26 miles and seeing the patient partners at Mile 25 made each step a little easier and more meaningful. I choose to train and run and torture my body. I can stop any time I want. But no one can choose not to have cancer or to not feel like crap after chemo and radiation treatments.

Each year, I've run the Boston Marathon to honor the lives of some special people my family and I lost to cancer. And as I've made friends with my DFMC teammates who each run for their own special people, their special people have become my own, by association. The last two marathons, I've written those names on ribbons, along with the names people gave me when they made donations to my page, pinned the ribbons to my singlet, and carried them with me on race day to honor their courage and remind myself why I run. This year I'm doing it again, and this morning I counted 28 ribbons. That's 28 courageous people who have fought cancer. Some lost, some won, some are still fighting.

I hope that as you root for me on Marathon Monday and track my race progress on the BAA website (bib #22586), that you'll take a moment to think about the real reason I'm running, and give a little mental nod to the brave people my teammates and I run for, as well as the ones in your own life.