Here we go again...

Woohoo! I am a DFMC team member again. Yes, that's right, I now have the opportunity to spend countless hours running the Newton hills on cold, dark Thursday nights, to wake up at the crack of dawn on a frigid Saturday morning in January to run 15 miles, to spend my weekend afternoons crafting and editing fundraising emails, to run around in endless circles at the Tufts indoor track, and, at the end of it all, run 26.2 hilly miles into Boston. Yay!!

Receiving my acceptance via email this year was decidedly less exciting than last. Last year, I distinctly remember coming home from work, dropping my gigantic bag on the floor of my bedroom, tossing my jacket on my bed and walking over to my computer to check my email, expecting to have nothing more than a few emails from Banana Republic and JCrew touting whatever sale they happened to be having that week. I had given up on my application to DFMC the week before. Stopped running (not that I had been running a lot to begin with, but it had been a start), stopped expectantly checking my email, started thinking of other things that I could do for the winter. But then, there it was, "Lauren Krzynowek, welcome to the Dana-Farber 2008 Marathon Challenge 2008 invitational roster!" I remember laughing, and dancing around my apartment, calling my dad, and running upstairs to tell my neighbors (Ashley wasn't home, so I needed to tell someone). No one could believe that I had actually applied to run a marathon... in fact, they couldn't even believe that I had any desire to run a marathon in the first place. Regardless of their doubts, I was beyond excited.

Looking back, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. No idea. I've said it a million times, the DFMC experience is life changing. But on that day, when I received that email, I thought I was just going to do a little bit more running for the next few months... how wrong I was. I was in for a lot of hard work, a lot of tired mornings, a lot of frustration, and a lot of tears. Not to mention a lot of laughter, a lot of beers, a lot of smiles and a LOT of great friends.

This year, my acceptance email from the DFMC office didn't quite provoke any dance moves, but that's certainly not to say that I'm not excited. Quite the contrary, actually. I have been looking forward to the DFMC season starting up again since I was forced (by social conventions) to take off my shiny, new, blue and yellow medal and return to life as normal on April 22. I recognize that, from the outside, it seems a bit crazy to apply to do all of the hard work (running and otherwise) that DFMC requires, and it probably seems even crazier to apply to do it all a second time, knowing what is in store for me, but I loved every minute of my DFMC experience last year. And while I, of course, am dreading certain things that I didn't know any better than to be excited for last year (20 milers, cold mornings, track workouts), I'm excited to experience all of these things now as a DFMC veteran. So, bring on the training season, DFMC! Bring on the cold butts and the peanut m&m's and the running in circles and the runner's meetings and the hills! It's good to be back...