Training for Boston:

Okay, this catches me up a little to where things are in the current training season. I am now training for the Boston marathon, which is April 21st. This is my third Boston race and maybe my last! We are up to a long run of 14 miles, and heading through the towns of Newton, Wellesley, Natick and Framingham weekly with the Team. I'll post more about the training details, but wanted to write about why and who I am running for this year:

I will be running in honor of my friend Kathleen Drohan's mother, Judy. I met Kathleen through my friends Asako and Kevin. Kathleen moved here from New York, and works for the Boston Symphony doing their public relations, which is a very intense job! When she moved here, her mother was ill and she was telling me about the battle she was having with multiple myeloma. Kathleen was a big supporter of TNT whose friend ran with the Team after being a cancer survivor. I wanted to support Kathleen after the loss of her mother by running in honor of her this year. Kathleen wrote a short essay about her mother, which I placed on my fundraising page:

My mother, Judy Johanson, died on August 8, 2007, at age 70, after living with multiple myeloma for nearly a decade. She was a loving, giving woman who lived for her family.

My mother loved to travel, to be outdoors, and to go to movies or read a good book. She loved going to airports and watching people reunite with their loved ones (sometimes you had to drag her out of there, if she'd spied someone waiting, but hadn't witnessed the reunion). Besides spicy food and getting her hair wet, there actually wasn't much that she didn't like. She instilled in my sister and me a love of life and a neurosis about being late.

Unless something went terribly wrong, she never missed a family event. My cousins Janii and her husband Laurence, Steven and his wife Anna, and Jon and his wife Gail and their children, Hayden, Nelle, Forrest, Jesse, Peter, Noli, and Kristian, kept her busy with school plays and graduations, but she loved every second of it and each of them wholeheartedly.
My mother's sister Nancy and her dearest friend Sally kept her both grounded and entertained. She loved spending time with both of them (although much of the time, whatever they did together were tales she wouldn't share with her daughters).

She loved meeting and holding babies. Her own granddaughters Talia and Ava were her life's greatest joys.
We all miss her every day.

My sister, Karen Drohan, and I are so honored that Marie is choosing to honor my mother with her run this year. We hope you'll support her training.