10 weeks to go and over half-way to my $10,280 fundraising goal!

Ten weeks from today, I will wake before dawn and walk across the Boston Common to board a big yellow school bus for the hour-long ride to Hopkinton. I have kissed my husband goodbye on the Common twice before, and this time we will get to ride that bus together. After our arrival in Hopkinton, we will try to stay warm as we wait anxiously for the start. Although I love the design of the 2014 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team singlet, it will be hard to see the Boston skyline under the honor ribbons that will be pinned to mine. 

It seems that almost every day I meet another person who is fighting the battle of their lives, or who has lost someone dear. It is very humbling to receive donations in honor of so many wonderful people. With my practice's year-end donation of a percentage of proceeds from procedures, my fundraising total is now over $5,200, so I am more than half-way to my $10,280 goal for Dana-Farber. On days when it is cold and rainy, or I am exhausted from a long procedure at work, when I would rather plunk down on the couch and watch TV than train, I think of the people who want to run but can't, and I run. Yesterday, on mile 10 of a 13-mile training run in the rain, I tripped on a patch of uneven pavement and fell down. Thankfully I had on a long-sleeved shirt with thumb-holes, so my palms were protected from the asphalt (so I can still do surgery tomorrow!) but I landed hard on my right hip and shoulder, and for a moment after I got up I thought about calling it a day. I walked a hundred yards or so, towards the Whole Foods market, where I thought I might ask to borrow a phone to call my husband to pick me up. But as I walked, I decided to tough it out, and jogged (albeit more slowly than usual, and with a few walk breaks up the hills) the remaining few miles home. In my head I was singing one of my old favorite songs, "Minutes to Memories" by John Mellencamp, which contains the lines "So suck it up and tough it out, and be the best you can".

I'm pretty sore today, and my hip and shoulder are bruised, but I'm happy for having finished the run, and managed to get in a couple of miles after work today as well. John Mellencamp has written some wise words; another of my favorites is "Between a Laugh and a Tear": "Just try to live each and every precious moment, Don't be discouraged by the future, forget the past. That's old advice but it'll be good to you; I know there's a balance, I see it when I swing past..."