Boston Marathon 2012 Profile: Meaghan Flaherty

Are you running in the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 16? —make sure to email us a photo at danield@patch.com—and we'll print your profile this week leading up to the 2012 Boston Marathon.

Name: Meaghan Flaherty

Age: 33

Marathon Experience: This will be my first marathon.

Reason for running: I am running the Boston Marathon as a member of the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge Team. One hundred percent of all donations will support amazing cancer research that is being conducted there.We all know someone who has been impacted by this awful disease and the folks at Dana Farber are working hard to find treatments that will help ease the suffering and hopefully one day they will even find a cure.

I don't want to sit by idly and watch yet another family member die from cancer and I feel like this is one small thing I can do to try to make a difference. If you'd like to join the fight against cancer, please consider making a donation at: www.runDFMC.org/2012/meaghanf.

Training Tip: Don't under estimate the importance of crosstraining. While you may not feel it's helpful to improve your running, it's important to give your joints and muscles a chance to relax while still getting in a cardio workout.