So many reasons, family, friends, coworkers, but mainly my wife. Back in 2010 my wife Maire (fiancée at the time) told me that she was scared that something was wrong and asked if I'd make a doctor's appointment for her. It wasn't that she couldn't use a phone, but she was so fearful of getting a poor diagnosis, she couldn't quite make the call. It was just after Christmas and this had been bothering her for weeks but she didn't want to cast a cloud over the holidays.
So I made the appointment and her fears were confirmed, she had breast cancer, and after many more appointments we found out that it was pretty advanced and had spread to her lymphatic system. We were in our early 30's and these were by far the darkest clouds we had to contend with, up to that point or since.
My profile picture is us at the beginning, February 2011, at Dana Farber, the day after I gave us mohawks because we knew her hair wasn't going to make it through treatment.
I would not wish what she went through on anyone, months of iv chemo, so many different kinds, a stint getting a drug that was in a late stage trial, multiple surgeries until the margins were clear, then tattoos for radiation treatments (you want to make sure everything is aligned just right), then the radiation treatments themselves, surgeries for reconstruction, years of chemo pills, and follow-up appointments for life, because cancer is forever, it might be in remission, but it’s never gone.
Here’s the thing, it’s 13 years later, and she’s crushing it, we’ve done a Tough Mudder, we’ve done Spartan races, three years ago we took on the Wellsley Century, two years running we've owned the 162 mile Wellsley to Provincetown run, and this year we're back for another 162 miles.
The reality is we wouldn’t be here, she wouldn’t be here without Dana Farber, and not just the treatment, all of the things that they do to make an unbearable experience bearable, money for groceries, books and magazines to read during treatment, tickets to a red sox game. They are truly wonderful during a time where absolutely everything is awful.
So I ride because I can and I ride because she can, and we ride so that one day in the future no one has to experience those same clouds of darkness.