· Date: Friday August 2, 2019
· Where: Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Hopkinton, Massachusetts
· Total Distance Covered: 101.5 miles
· Running Partner: Mason
Today was our last full day as a team. Tomorrow, we would be running into Boston and parting ways. Caroline, who was living in Boston at the time, joked around that anyone was welcome to crash at her apartment for however long they wanted. She wanted to show us around Boston, and we all knew she was half-serious. Yet all of us already had plans with our friends and family who were meeting us in the city. If not, a lot of Team Boston had flights to catch. Small talk and cheesy jokes helped to break the somber mood this morning, but all of us were thinking of when we would say goodbye. There would likely never be another time when all twenty-eight of us were together again.
Today, I was in the second van. I think the cheesy jokes turned into full-on laughter and soon, we had all forgotten it was our last complete day together. The morale was so high today. There were jokes, songs, and laughter for all our miles. When we talked to people in the other van, they said that their morale was low. People were crying with tears and sobs. It was all sad conversations full of goodbyes and farewells in the first van. Those of us in the second van were so pleased we weren’t experiencing that. It’s not that we weren’t sad like everyone else in the other van, we just ignored it. There were still hours to have fun together!
I hadn’t run with Mason at all this summer. Mason and I were the last people on the team to not be paired together and we were so glad to have been finally paired together today. We had a lot of great conversations throughout the summer, especially during our time in isolation together. By this point, we already knew each other extremely well and had bonded over the suffering we had endured together with our infections. Mason was still the chief person to remind me I had gotten “The Plague” and he had gotten “The Sickness.” So, running today, was great. We talked a bit about the summer, what we learned, and what we had gotten from 4K. The first few miles, we ran alone, and then we finished the day running with Tyler S. and Jack.
Together, Jack, Tyler, Mason, and I ran through historical towns in Massachusetts. The route was shaded and heavily trafficked. In some places, the white line wasn’t even on the road which had crumbled to gravel on the edges. It didn’t matter though because the miles we shared running through Concord were special. A few historical signs commemorated the town for the role it played in the Revolutionary war and the four of us agreed that it was incredible to run through history. In a small way, it felt like we were making history running into Boston. Perhaps we felt this way because Team Boston had made an impact this summer. For many of us, it was the first time we had done something truly important in our lives. Running the 4K for Cancer wasn’t something anyone was fortunate to be able to do.
Around lunchtime, our van pulled into a supermarket so that we could all get something to eat. We didn’t bother asking for a gift card or any kind of food donation. We all wanted something specific for our last lunch together. I wanted to find chicken marsala, but even in the section with prepared foods, the store didn’t have any! I was so disappointed but knew I had set my hopes high. I ended up buying a bag of green beans and a bottle of chocolate milk. It sounds weird, but both were local products. The green beans had been picked just the day before, and the milk was from a local farm! It came in a clear, glass bottle that reminded me of the bottles that used to be dropped off on people’s front steps by milkmen. This was the best chocolate milk I had ever had in my entire life. To this day, I give this milk that title. When everyone in the van saw me enjoying the creamy deliciousness and proudly displaying my milk mustache, a few them went back inside to get their own bottle!
We all were enjoying our milk together when someone walked up to us and introduced herself as Leanna. Leanna had participated in the 4K for Cancer last year on one of the Ulman Foundation’s biking teams! It was incredible how small of a world it was.
We ended up convincing Leanna to run back home since she only lived about a mile from the store. She changed her clothes into an Ulman shirt and joined us for the remainder of our miles! Leanna ended up running about six miles with us today. She took breaks in the van with us and ran with a few different running pairs as well. It was spectacular and I think her presence greatly contributed to our van’s high morale. We all traded stories about our funniest, worst, and most memorable moments of 4K. We shared what we had learned, and Leanna talked about what it was like when her team had finished their last miles together. It was a great conversation, and we were all so sad to see her go.
We spent about three to four hours together, laughing, hugging, and sharing stories. Later, Alexis and I taught her the famous Michael Phelps move, and we were all laughing. We were sad to see her go but so appreciative of the time we had been able to share. The team spirit, support, and friendship that the 4K for Cancer generates for everyone involved had continued to blow our mind, even in the last days of the trip. Here was an individual who we had never known, but shared a past with us. We were lucky enough to run by her house when she saw us and later tracked us down in the parking lot. Our time together was amazing and the highlight of the day for the entire van.
I was glad our miles were over though. I had drunk about thirty-two ounces of milk before running another four miles. My stomach was not friends with me right now, and completing our miles was a blessing in disguise. All of us were feeling the same way but we didn’t regret the milk at all. We were half tempted to turn around and head back for more!
In Hopkinton, we had the unfortunate task of cleaning out the vans for the final time. We parked them in a gas station that had a vacuum and gave the vans some well-deserved attention. By the time we were finished, it looked like no one had ever used the vans for the past seven weeks. When we sat back inside though, the smell gave away what these vehicles had endured. We all hoped that Enterprise would burn the upholstery, the seats, and the carpet. There was no way the vans would be rid of the smells again.
Once we had finished cleaning, we drove to Hopkinton State Park. There, Becca and Jen, the representatives who had visited with the team at various intervals during the summer, were waiting for us to give out collegiate scholarships to two recipients.
Before the two recipients and their families arrived, Becca and Jen had us fill out exit surveys and questionnaire forms about our experiences with the Ulman Foundation and the 4K for Cancer. I made sure to share my thoughts about the lack of food and support from the foundation in various areas. I proposed the method I had talked about before, where people were assigned in advance, a town to obtain food donations from. While I was writing this on the forms, I also verbalized it to Becca and Jen to make sure that it was heard. Everyone on the team had thought it would have been a fantastic idea if we had done anything like that. The results would have been less hungry bellies and a lot more publicity as well. I’m not sure how the 2020 4K for Cancer teams would have been conducted this year, and if this concept would have been a part of their structure, but Becca and Jen seemed to like the idea. On the forms, I also wrote extremely briefly about what I had learned from the 4K for Cancer. I explained what I enjoyed about it, and what I would be taking away from it tomorrow when we reached Boston. Although like I have said before, a lot of these thoughts were still undiscernible as they rolled through my mind. I was formulating these thoughts into a rough idea though. Cancer had become my strength.
As the recipients arrived at the park and found our picnic table, I think they were all surprised to see the team. Both recipients, Veronika Melo and Carlie Gonzalez had been told that a 4K for Cancer team would be present. What they hadn’t been told is that we would still be sweaty and smelly. We hadn’t even been to our host for the night to remove our things from the vans. We had finished our miles and come right to the park. I think we probably smelled a little, and I hoped they all understood.
The ceremony would last a little over an hour. Becca and Jen made a few speeches and so did some others on Team Boston. We explained to the recipients why we had done the 4K for Cancer and we explained in more depth how the summer had worked. Later, each recipient spoke a little about their own experience with cancer and their college plans. At the end of the night, we presented them with two massive checks, both physically and numerically. Veronika and Carlie each received $2,500 to be separated throughout the 2019-2020 academic school year. The scholarship was a direct result of our fundraising efforts and the 4K for Cancer Campaign. Each 4K for Cancer team handed out the scholarships to recipients as they made their way across the country. Although not all sixteen recipients would receive their scholarship from a 4K for Cancer team due to their geographical location, all scholarships were funded by our efforts. Each recipient would also receive a signed Team Boston Jersey of their own.
The scholarship ceremony was extremely humbling and empowering. The fact that our 4K for Cancer teams had contributed in this way, to help fellow members of the cancer community, who were also attending college was incredible. Everyone on the team had been waiting for this day and were all so excited that it had finally arrived.
Later, as the mosquitos started to come out and the sun started to go down, the recipients left. Becca had told our team that there wasn’t any swimming allowed during the ceremony because she didn’t want us to be wet for the picture. But the lake that Hopkinton State Park was situated around, was too tempting. One of the guys ended up “accidentally” throwing a decorative balloon we had blown up, onto the water. Their intention was for the balloon to float out into the swimming area of the water so that we could swim out to it.
“Protecting the environment would be the perfect excuse!” he said.
It was 4k blasphemy to not swim in such a beautiful body of water.
Suddenly, a large gust of wind took the balloon. Gracefully, it glided out to the center of the lake. Easily about three to four times the distance from the shore to the furthest reaches of the swimming area. Since it was a reservoir though, it didn’t matter and there was no boat traffic. Soon, about eight of us had torn our shoes off and were racing to see who could swim to the balloon first. It was so much fun!
Our host for tonight was a local YMCA camp. We showered, made a pasta dinner, and then loaded all our things into one of the fifteen-passenger vans. Becca and Jen were bringing the other fifteen-passenger van and the host van to Enterprise tomorrow while we ran into Boston. They were also sleeping in a hotel tonight. At first, we were a little perplexed as to why this was the case until we realized that we would have our last night as a team, together. Since they were sleeping separately, we would be able to enjoy each other’s company uninterrupted by anyone else.
A few of the guys hadn’t shaved for the entire summer. They wanted to grow their beards like Forrest Gump, and some of them had been successful in doing so! Tyler S., specifically, hadn’t touched a razor in forty-nine days. Tonight, he decided to shave his beard without telling any of us. Tomorrow, he was attending a wedding after running into Boston, and needed to look good for pictures! When he emerged from the bathroom, it took us all a while to figure out why Tyler looked like a baby. A few minutes passed before we all realized we were seeing his cheeks for the first time in a while! This brought about so many laughs among the team and we talked about it throughout the rest of the night. It was crazy!
Before settling down for the night, we all drove to a local ice cream shop. Not everyone ate ice cream because a lot of us were nervous about tomorrow. The outing was more for the social aspect of it than the ice cream.
Rather than run eight, ten, twelve, or sixteen miles in smaller increments, tomorrow we were running the most miles we had run so far, in one long run. Tomorrow would be a twenty-mile day along the last miles of the Boston Marathon route. We were all excited but about seventy percent of the team had never run this far. Furthermore, our number of teammates who were injured was in the double digits. You could feel the nerves as everyone worried about what to eat, how much to drink, and if they would be able to run all their miles. The ice cream though helped to ease the anxiety on the team and soon the laughs were back.
For a while, people had talked about running different mileage on the last day.
The consensus a few weeks ago was, “If we are running twenty miles, why not run a marathon?”
I had been one of those people, until a few days ago when I started to feel a tweak in my right foot. I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was an ache that was different from the tiredness I felt after running all day. I was worried and didn’t want to push it. John-Hanson and I must have both ate something in the pasta earlier in the night though because we were both extremely hyper. John-Hanson was boasting about how much fun ultramarathons were when someone jokingly told him he should just run fifty miles tomorrow instead of a marathon.
John-Hanson seemed to take them seriously but said that he wouldn’t do it alone.
Boldly, I volunteered myself as a tribute, thinking John-Hanson would back down.
John-Hanson did not back down. Over the next few hours, we talked with each other about how we could make this possible. We knew we would need to wake up at about three-thirty in the morning to make it to Boston Commons at noon, but even this didn’t persuade us otherwise. It seemed we both didn’t want to cave and show weakness to the other. It had been a joke that turned into a dare, and now we were in a stalemate. Everything in my brain told me not to do it, it was ridiculous. I was already hurting in my foot, and there was no way I could run safely fifty miles. Especially after running the mileage, we had run the past few weeks. John-Hanson shouldn’t be doing it either! Eventually, though, we came to our senses and decided against the insanity. One day, John-Hanson and I will run an ultramarathon together!
After ice cream, we sat around and talked a lot and listened to music. We were glad we had all finished our journals last night since it meant we could enjoy each other’s company tonight. So many of us wanted to peek inside to see what was written for us, but we knew we had to wait until we got home. It was like we had a present waiting for us that couldn’t be opened until Christmas!
At one point, we sat in a large circle and had a paper plate ceremony. We talked about each person individually and what our favorite memories were with that person. Then we collectively decided on a paper plate award to give to each person. Most of them were stupid and brought about countless laughs. My award was “Most likely to stress about his blog.” I guess I had talked about missing updates a lot more than I had intended too! At the same time, this ceremony was very memorable because of everything else that was said. We all grew embarrassed by the compliments we shared about the things we taught each other. I think there were even a few tears.
As the night grew later, and the ceremony ended, we all retreated to our sleeping bags. We didn’t want to go to sleep because that would mean it would be the morning. With the morning, it would be our last few hours together. At the same time, we knew we needed a good night's sleep before our big day.
As I closed my eyes, I couldn’t believe the day was finally approaching where we would run into Boston. I was beyond excited to see my family and it was the day I had been waiting for so long to wake up to. Despite this, and despite the disenchantment of 4K I had experienced over the past few weeks, I was disappointed it was over. I knew this was a special moment for all of us and the thought of the end scared me. I wasn’t sure what was after 4K for me. I knew it was back to reality and back to normalcy, but I wasn’t sure the next time I would have something so powerful to motivate me and give me purpose. For the past forty-nine days and the preceding months, my purpose had been to run for the cancer community. Now, the end was in sight. I didn’t know what to make of it. I wanted this, but at the same time, I didn’t want it at all.
