As I considered blogging through the roughly 200 days of my 2010 Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge experience, I wondered if I would create 200 entries. Of course I wouldn't -- I wasn't fully committed to that as a goal. Blogging over the course of the 200 days, and through the range of experiences, was, and is, my commitment.




166 days closer to the Boston Marathon -- 34 days from today -- and I more clearly understand what I am committed to for this DFMC campaign:

• to acknowledging the fragility of life while appreciating the innumerable blessings of my fortunate existence, whatever it may hold;
• to encourage and invite people to help fund more life-changing and life-saving research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute well beyond the minimum requirements of the DFMC runners. To donate, please visit my DFMC e-gift secure webpage;
• to deepening relationships with anyone who is generous enough to allow me to run in honor of their friends, family, and loved ones who have faced cancer. If there's a cancer survivor, thriver, or angel that you'd like to share with me, please email me with a favorite story, a fond memory, picture, or just a name;
• to give platelets as often as every two weeks, and to encourage others to do so. It's easy, no more painful than giving blood, and it allows a cancer patient to have a treatment that otherwise must be postponed. Here's info on donating platelets in the Jimmy Fund building at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• to embrace the DFMC experience as a meditative practice that allows and requires me to be aware of the ebbs and flows of thoughts and feelings through the season. Hence this blog!