“Connected”. It’s a word that, today, often has the negative
connotation of being attached to electronics 24/7, never shutting our phones
off, never having a moment’s peace away from a screen. But “connected” is how I
feel after having run the 2014 Boston Marathon on the Dana-Farber Marathon
Challenge Team. To be “connected” to other human beings, to a community, to
something bigger than ourselves, is what we all long for. It is why we were all
kinder to one another after 9/11, why we declared “United we stand.” It is why
people from all over America cried on April 15, 2013, and why “Boston Strong”
resonates with so many. That desire for connection is part of what makes us
human - it is why people go to church, join book clubs, or yes, even spend time on
Facebook. When we are connected to other people, we know that in some way, we
matter. If we can affect someone’s life, if we can contribute something,
however small, to someone else’s well-being, we have made our world a better
place.
Sometimes connection is something we seek out, and sometimes
it is something that just happens. When I initially thought of joining a
charity team, it was for selfish reasons: I was looking for a way to be able to run a race I would not
otherwise qualify to run. Because I had grown up in awe of the ordinary people
who ran the race, because I once thought it was something I could never do, I
wanted to run the Boston Marathon. So in the beginning, joining a charity team was, admittedly, a
means to an end. However, as I looked at the various options for charity teams,
I realized that I wanted to do something that would have a significant impact.
I've never attempted fundraising before, and I knew that, to be successful, it would have to be something I truly believed in and felt passionate about. Although many of the charity teams participating in the Boston Marathon raise public awareness of little known health issues such
as liver disease, I needed to do more than make people aware. I wanted to be
able to change someone’s life. Although helping homeless animals and orphaned
children has always been the focus of my charitable efforts in the past, having
lost three friends to cancer in the past several years, and watching several
other friends go through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment for
cancer treatment, I was struck when I read about the work done at Dana-Farber
Cancer Institute. As I read more about the Claudia Adams Barr Program for Innovative
Cancer Research, and the unique approaches to cancer treatment that have
resulted from funding investigators through the Barr Program, I knew that I’d
found the team with whom I wanted to run. Although it was too late to help my friends Dana, Rich and
Verna, I thought I might be able to impact the lives of future cancer patients,
and in doing so, honor the memories of my friends. I didn't realize that joining the Dana-Farber Team and running the Boston Marathon would give me a sense of community that had been lacking in my life for several years, and connect me to thousands of people in an unexpectedly intimate way.
One of the most amazing aspects about the Boston Marathon,
which makes it unique among Marathons, is the crowd support. It’s not just a
few thousand people scattered along the course, most there to cheer on a
specific runner they know. It feels like entire towns are there to celebrate
the achievement that running 26.2 miles represents, generations of families coming out to connect with the runners
and with each other, continuing a tradition that has existed for over a century. This year, of course, it was an even bigger crowd than usual, and we had
an even bigger reason to feel connected to each other. When the bombs exploded on April 15,
2013, hundreds of lives were forever changed. The terrorists succeeded in
stopping the race that day, but this year, as a resounding retort, the race
included one of the biggest fields of runners in its 118-year history, and
there were estimated to be a million spectators. The people of Hopkinton,
Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline
and Boston emphatically stated, “You are not taking this away from us. This is
our day. This is Patriots’ Day. This is our finish line.” I am still so proud to have been a part of it.