How a cancer diagnosis at 24, one determined mother and a flat race beside the Chattahoochee helped welcome more than 50 Team Maggie’s babies.
“I’m right here.”
– Maggie Boswell, correcting a wonderfully understandable misunderstanding
A waitress once recognized the Team Maggie’s 5K and 10K signs around Roswell and told Maggie Boswell that she assumed the girl behind the race had died. Maggie, seated at the table and very much alive, supplied the necessary correction: “I’m right here.”
That mistaken identity captures the wonderfully unexpected nature of the Team Maggie’s Dream 5K & 10K. Maggie is alive, involved and occasionally able to slip onto the course between race-day responsibilities. The event bearing her name raises money to help young adults with cancer preserve the possibility of having children later. More than 50 “Team Maggie’s babies” have arrived so far, including Maggie’s own daughter.
Before the Race, There Was Softball
Long before Maggie became the namesake of a Roswell 5K and 10K, she was a softball player. She played third base and catcher at Georgia College & State University, where the campus, teammates and coaches gave her just about everything she wanted from college. She still coaches her daughter’s team and plays slow pitch when time allows.
Running entered the picture after college. Maggie, her brother, her mother Mary and her stepfather Rick began signing up for local 5Ks, usually choosing events connected to a cause they cared about. One race became another, sometimes one or two per month. The family had found a way to move together, support good work and spend a Saturday morning with people who did not mind being handed a numbered bib before breakfast.
At 24, ‘You’re Too Young’ Wasn’t an Answer
In 2013, Maggie found a lump herself. The first response, repeated in different forms, was that she was too young for it to be cancer. Imaging looked reassuring. She was told she could wait six months before returning for a biopsy.
Maggie’s instincts disagreed. She asked to have the lump removed. On December 3, 2013, the call came: it was stage-one ductal carcinoma. A double mastectomy followed on January 6, 2014, then chemotherapy. Decisions that would overwhelm almost anyone arrived in a hurry, and Maggie was making them at 24.
Fertility became part of the conversation before chemotherapy. Treatment could affect her ability to have children, and preservation could cost roughly $8,000 to $10,000. Maggie wanted a family someday. Her mother covered the expense, giving her an option that many young cancer patients simply could not afford.
How Team Maggie’s Shirts Became a Foundation
Three weeks after the diagnosis, family members opened Team Maggie’s shirts on Christmas morning. They wore them for Maggie’s surgery and sent photos from wherever they lived. Once Maggie could walk after the mastectomy, about 20 supporters joined her at the Polar Bear Run near Johnson Ferry Road wearing the shirts. Maggie planned to sell more and repay her mother.
Mary was thinking bigger. During one of Maggie’s chemotherapy sessions, she suggested starting a foundation to help other young people pay for fertility preservation. Maggie looked around the treatment room, noticed again that she was the youngest person there and wondered how many people they could possibly help. She also had the understandable preference of getting through chemotherapy before launching a nonprofit.
Mary started researching anyway. Maggie now jokes that when people say, “You’re the Maggie,” the better response might be, “You’re the Mary.” The organization carries Maggie’s name, but her mother’s determination supplied much of the early momentum.
A Race With Results Far Beyond the Finish Line
The first Team Maggie’s Dream race was held in 2015 with roughly 200 participants or fewer. The family learned the unglamorous details of race directing along the way, including the price of police support and the surprisingly important subject of portable restrooms. The field has since grown to more than 600 registrants in some years.
After race expenses, proceeds support Team Maggie’s Dream grants for fertility preservation for cancer patients. Men and women through age 39 can apply, and awards can reach $2,500. The organization now receives close to 200 applications in a year. Those numbers answered Maggie’s early question in the chemotherapy room rather decisively.
The most meaningful number is 50-plus. That is how many children the organization knows as Team Maggie’s babies. Some parents preserved eggs, sperm or embryos before treatment. Others used fertility-protective options and later conceived without assistance. The path varies, which is precisely why preserving options matters. Young patients already confronting cancer gain a little more control over a future that has suddenly become difficult to picture.
Maggie’s daughter brings the story full circle. Maggie was pregnant during the first race. Later, she pushed her daughter in a stroller on the course. Now 10, her daughter hands out flyers at school, recruits friends and offers sleepovers to solve the race’s early start. She often heads down the course with those friends before Maggie can join her. They have not completed the whole race side by side, but Maggie puts it perfectly: they have always been in it together.
Why the Team Maggie’s Dream 5K & 10K Belongs on Your Calendar
The 2026 Team Maggie’s Dream 5K & 10K takes place Saturday, September 12, starting and finishing near King’s Court Chapel in Roswell. The 10K begins at 7:30 a.m., followed by the 5K at 7:35 a.m. Both are out-and-back routes with closed roads and long stretches beside the Chattahoochee River, including passes near the Chattahoochee Nature Center. The course is genuinely flat, a sentence that deserves special appreciation anywhere near Atlanta.
The event welcomes runners and walkers across a wide range of abilities. The 5K is also a Peachtree Road Race qualifier, while the 10K gives runners more time along the river and a longer look at one of metro Atlanta’s prettiest race corridors. Music, a handful of vendors and a friendly crowd keep the atmosphere lively without turning the morning into a traveling carnival.
Get Ready at Big Peach Running Co. East Cobb
Big Peach Running Co. East Cobb is proud to support a cancer charity race in Roswell with such a direct connection to families in our community and beyond. If you are preparing for your first 5K, walking the event with friends, chasing a Peachtree qualifying time or stepping up to the 10K, our team can help you choose gear that fits the job.
Our Fit Process helps runners, walkers and people looking for everyday comfort compare shoes based on fit, goals, preferences and what feels right on foot. We can also help with apparel, socks, hydration and nutrition for race morning. Bring your current shoes and a sense of what you want from the day. We will help you sort through the options before September 12.
Register through Team Maggie’s Dream and show up for a race whose impact may be measured years after the finish line.
FAQs About Team Maggie’s Dream, the 5K & 10K and Race Preparation
Team Maggie’s Dream is a nonprofit that provides grants to help young adults with cancer pay for fertility preservation before treatment. The organization grew from Maggie Boswell’s own experience after a breast cancer diagnosis at age 24.
The race is Saturday, September 12, 2026, in Roswell, Georgia. The 10K starts at 7:30 a.m. and the 5K starts at 7:35 a.m. near King’s Court Chapel.
Yes. The race draws both runners and walkers, the roads are closed, and the course is unusually flat for metro Atlanta. The 5K is an approachable first-race distance, while the 10K offers a longer challenge that is still flat and fast. Both races are along the Chattahoochee River.
After race expenses, proceeds help fund fertility-preservation grants for men and women with cancer through age 39. Grants may be worth up to $2,500, depending on the applicant’s needs and available funding.
Register at TeamMaggiesDream.org/events. Use promo code BigPeach to save $5 on the 10K & 5K in-person events.
Start by asking Footwear Guru, a Big Peach service built on the way our team already fits shoes. It helps runners, walkers and people looking for everyday comfort ask better questions, compare options and arrive with a smarter starting point. Then finish in the store with our fit-first, research-informed Fit Process, where you can try shoes and decide what feels best. Visit the Big Peach East Cobb store page for hours, directions and Reserve to Try.