Be the Match - Running for a Cause

I hate to run. 

As a pre-teen, I was actually on my high school's track team - it was the first year they were fielding a team, so they were desperate and allowed middle school students to compete. I ran hurdles - because our team was so young, we didn't have a full set, so we practiced by running and jumping over one hurdle and rebounding off a brick wall; then we'd back up and repeat it over and over. The first time I ever saw a full set of ten hurdles was in my first race. Needless to say, I didn't do very well.  At one meet, we were short a runner for the mile, and because it was a small meet anyone who ran was guaranteed to place and earn points for the team; the coach decided I was up to the task. I managed to finish, but I was still winded 30 minutes later when it was time for my own event. 28 years later, I can still remember my time for the mile - and it is still, pitifully, my personal best - 8:24.

Despite all of that, tomorrow I will be waking up at dawn and participating in a fun run, and I'm going to try and run the whole way. It's supposed to be cold, and they say it's going to rain, but my family will be there nonetheless.  The race is the Triangle Day School Twister Trot, formerly called Marcy's Run in honor of Marcy Speer, a  wife, mother, and world-renowned geneticist at Duke University who sadly lost her battle with cancer in 2006. In the years since, the TDS community has had many other families affected by cancer, and now the race is run to honor all those families who have had their lives touched by the disease.

This year, the Twister Trot has partnered with Be the Match, a national marrow donor program that connects patients with their donor match for a life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant. Be the Match will be at the race to swab cheeks and help any individual register to be a bone marrow donor. 

I hate to run, that's true. But cancer? I hate that more.

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