WELCOME to my blog!

Welcome to my running blog! As I endeavor to complete the Boston Marathon, I invite you to travel with me on this journey through what has already been, and what will continue to be, a challenging, but inspiring, experience.

While I would like to think of myself as a natural athlete, I did not qualify for the Boston Marathon (for a woman of my age to qualify, I would have had to have run a marathon in 3 hours and 40 minutes!). I was fortunate to be accepted onto the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Marathon team. So not only do I get to run the marathon, but I also have the opportunity to advance cancer research and to come one step closer to a cure through my efforts.

My Inspiration AMARA TONANGI: I have been wanting to run the marathon for quite some time. As my friend Derek Kung from law school can attest to, I have been trying to train for the marathon since at least 2005. However, as it often happens, life just got in the way.

I started thinking of running the marathon again last year. As I turn the big 3-0 this year and 3 days before the Boston Marathon, I thought this would be a great way to ring in a new decade (though now I realize that sipping pina coladas on the beach would also have been a great, and more sane, option).

But it was not until I attended the one-year death anniversary celebration of a most beloved Aunty of mine that I became inspired to actually go for it. I am running this marathon in memory of an amazing, wonderfully compassionate, fun-loving, and thoughtful woman: Amara Tonangi. Unfortunately, she lost the battle to breast cancer on November 9, 2007. Losing Amara Aunty was the first time that I lost somebody who was so close to me and it affected and hurt me in a way that I never knew possible. However, attending the celebration of her life last November helped me realize that I wanted to do something productive and beneficial in the fight against cancer. I then found the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge team and applied. It was the memory of Amara Aunty and the pain and suffering she went through that provided the inspiration for me to complete a life-long goal of mine.

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute provides cancer patients with the best treatment available today while developing tomorrow's cures through cutting-edge research. The Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team raises money for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research. The program fosters scientific breakthroughs by advancing the work of gifted researchers in a variety of basic research disciplines, including breast cancer.

It's extremely devastating how cancer has touched the closest people in my life. In addition to Amara Aunty, my husband lost his father (Mr. Surya Narayana Murthy Varanasi) to throat cancer and my sister-in-law lost her father (Professor Nimai Chand Mukhopadhyay) to brain cancer. I run for the memory of all of them and hope that with each step that I take, that I can make a difference in the fight against cancer.

I am excited for this experience and hope you enjoy this run with me!

Keep visiting! I hope to post often!