I still can’t believe I had the honor to run the world-famous Boston Marathon on April 18, 2022, with more than 25,000 amazing people from around the world! I never imaged that one day I was going to have the opportunity to cross that finish line with a new PR!
DANA FARBER MARATHON CHALLENGE (DFMC) – CHARITY ENTRY
My journey to run the Boston Marathon wasn’t easy, especially since I didn’t have a qualifying time and they don’t have a lottery to enter the race. Therefore, my only other option was to raise money for a charity. Most marathons offer a charity entry, and the fundraisings are doable with just a couple thousand dollars to raise. However, since the Boston Marathon is so popular and there is such a huge demand, all the charities require you to raise more than $8,000. I love a challenge, so if I had to raise a lot of money, I needed to make sure I selected a charity that supports a cause I hold close to my heart. That’s why I decided to join the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge to raise money to help end cancer! I chose to raise $10,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute because in 2014, I lost my mom to breast cancer and I knew this could help make a difference to fight cancer.
I will forever be grateful to my 60+ donors and to my company alliantgroup for helping me reach my $10,000 goal!
Fun Fact: The DFMC team had 500 runners with a goal of raising $5 million dollars for cancer research and I’m happy to announce that together we raised more than $6 million!
EXPO AT HYNES CONVENTION CENTER
Going to a marathon expo for packet pick up, is so much fun! It always makes me feel like I’m a real athlete haha. This expo was nice! It was well organized in a large venue, had amazing volunteers, interesting vendors and couple of fun photo ops and cool race gear. I even got a super comfy pair of OOFOS recovery sandals for FREE, thanks to my DFMC team!… but NYC Marathon expo is still my favorite.
Fun Fact: This race got me my third Abbott World Marathon Majors star!
THE RACE
Race day was a looong day! First, I met my DFMC team at 8am at the Boston Marriott Copley Place for a group photo and then we all walked about 2 miles together to board the buses right at 9am at Boston Commons to take us to the starting line. Then we rode the bus for about an hour until we got to Hopkinton High School where they had the Athletes’ Village.
At 11am, it was our turn to start walking towards the starting line and after a whole mile walk, we made it to the heart of Hopkinton to the “real” start line. There was so much good energy and so many people cheering us on! It’s been almost 3 years since my last “in person” marathon, so it was so nice to be back!
This historic route was very interesting, because it was one straight line, where you pass eight different towns until you make it back to Boston and end steps away from the iconic Boston Public Library. Something interesting about this racecourse, is that you start downhill and end uphill, so it’s pretty intense. Thankfully we had so many supporters cheering us on and I even had one of my best friends meet me right after mile 13! Big shout out to the Wellesley College and Boston College students, for bringing all the energy especially during the though uphill areas.
AAHHHH! Crossing that finish line was epic!!! Seeing all those people cheering you on by the stands, seeing the iconic downtown buildings, that runners high kicking in and getting that final rush of energy so you can make your race time goal was incredible. I’m proud to say I improved my Personal Record by 10 minutes, yay!
PS: Shout out to my dad for always coming to all my marathon races and for being the best cheerleader! ❤
I 100% recommend doing this marathon, it’s an experience you will never forget! Now you know what to do to get into this world-famous race when you don’t have a qualifying time. 😉 See, it was actually pretty fun!
Adios
#Dorina
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