This January, I'll be lacing up for my first Dopey Challenge as part of Marathon Weekend 2027. I've run runDisney's Wine and Dine race for the Dragon Master Initiative before, but this is my first time taking on Marathon Weekend, and it's my fourth year fundraising for this cause.
Why did I pick Dragon Masters? Dragon Master's mission to find and accelerate cures for cancer by fostering collaboration and innovation spoke to my heart. But what really pulled me in was their work on the data side. I've spent my career around databases, and Dragon Master helps fund CAVATICA, the platform supporting the Children's Brain Tumor Network's data-sharing efforts — one of the largest collections of pediatric brain tumor data in the world.
That was reason enough to run for the past three years. Then, in 2026, an MRI found a mass on my brain. At this point, it is benign and doesn’t appear to be growing.
I won't pretend that news didn't change something in me. What used to be a cause I believed in from the outside is now something I think about differently every time I train. The research Dragon Master funds like the data-sharing, the collaboration between institutions, the effort to cut years off the time it takes to find a cure isn't abstract to me anymore. It's research that could someday matter for my own health, or for someone else's family, the same way it's already mattered for the families Dragon Master was built to serve.
Dragon Master started with a little boy named David, whose love of dragons became the symbol for a fight far bigger than his own. Every dollar raised at Marathon Weekend goes toward the goal of getting researchers the data and the tools they need to find cures faster, for kids.
This challenge will be a big ask for my legs. But it's nothing compared to what families facing a brain cancer diagnosis are asked to carry. If you're able to support this run, any amount helps move the research forward.
Thank you for being part of my 5th year running for Dragon Master — and my first Dopey Challenge.
