Emily Hanrahan: Competitive for a Purpose
September 10, 2018
Two-time D10 Letterman Emily Hanrahan is an associate at Point72. Describe The D10 for someone who's never participated in it.
It’s first and foremost a community. It’s a months-long, maybe lifelong community, and it’s a journey together with that community, making one another the best athletes possible.
Everyone's an expert in something, and you learn from the people around you. No one goes in with the technique for every event, so you lean on each other, rely on each other. In the case of my own team, one of us played hockey, one was a football player, one played soccer, and I did track. None of us had overlapping skills.
The 20 Yard Shuttle's a big example, because there's a lot of technique involved. The football players who had done it before gave me the advice I needed. People were loaning me shoes, timing me at group workouts.
I still keep in contact with people who don't work at my firm. We still do workouts together. It’s good for networking, so it's good for your career in that respect. The type of person who excels at The D10, is the same type of person who excels in the workplace, from what I've seen.
You’re getting into the best shape of your life, and you’re getting great connections to some of the best places, workout facilities, doctors and trainers in New York City. It's a great community.
Team Making a Point (72), from left: Sam McDonald, Emily, Missy, Kevin Parma
How did you initially get involved?
A bunch of my coworkers at Point72 were doing The D10, and one of my coworkers, Missy Hutchings, kind of roped me into it. I couldn’t throw a football. I was pretty intimidated by doing 10 events.
I ran in college, so the running I thought I could do, even though I hadn't run a 400 or an 800 in a year. The rest of it was obviously scary, but I think the first training event I went to was at Tone House, and there were a bunch of D10 people there. Even though I was miles behind everyone else, everyone was clapping for me, yelling my name. Everyone else believed in me.
I kept coming back, and people kept cheering for me. It was the community, and pushing myself, and everyone else believing in me that got me hooked.
I stopped being worried anymore, and it became a fun thing to be a part of. Then I went to a track practice, and I was in my element.
What have competitive athletics meant to your life?
I went to Colgate University, and I ran cross country four years, indoor track, outdoor track. And I was a captain for two years.
Taking it further back, I have two older brothers. When I was little, I never wanted them to be able to do something I wasn't doing. I wore boys’ clothes. I played all the sports they played. In my town, there was no girls’ league, so I signed up to play basketball in the boys’ league.
Also, y extended family is really close, and on every family vacation growing up, we would split everyone up into blue teams and green teams. You found out which team you were on and you had to pack the right color clothes for your team. We’d play football, volleyball, golf, board games (the hard ones!), and keep score at everything. When it was bedtime for the kids, the adults would keep playing board games, the kids would wake up in the morning and find out how the scores had changed. It was super competitive to say the least!
How did The D10 help you navigate the transition from being a college athlete to being a finance professional?
Being an athlete in college is great. It's very rewarding, and I loved it, but it did involve a sacrifice. Toward the end of college, it was getting harder for me to do that. After eight straight years of competing three seasons a year, it had become a lot. So after college, I didn't run for maybe 9 months - didn't run a step!
I started thinking, I don't even like running anymore. When I joined The D10, I had a kind of awakening. I do love this. Once you have something to train for, it kind of ignites that fire again, and reminds me what I love about running, about having a team, and being competitive for a purpose.
What are your goals heading into 2019?
Athletically, I was really happy how I placed in the running events - I think I was top 3 in both the 400 and the 800 on the team day. Now I want to expand and be better at my non-core events, the ones that are a little more of a stretch.
Our big team goal for 2019 will be to raise a lot more money. I remember the first year we were struggling to get to $8000, and we consulted the FAQ on The D10 website and realized, We have to up our game. Since fundraising counts for one-quarter of your points as a team, we would love to be in that range where we can compete for the team title.
We’ve been holding an open-bar fundraiser every year. We get a pretty good deal per head, and then we mark it up a little bit. We always have way more people than we expect turn up for it, and then we get the proceeds matched by our firm, because Point72 is a big supporter. We’re going to make it even bigger this year - maybe add an auction component. I really enjoy the challenge of the fundraising component, because I’ve always been a numbers person. That’s why track worked for me - it’s all numbers!
Could you summarize what The D10 means for you personally?
It really has changed my life. This past season, we literally counted down the days until we could start our D10 training. I love the people who do it. You see the same people over and over, and they’re holding you accountable. [My teammate] Missy's really fast on the row, but recently we were in the gym, and she was taking it a little easy on the rower. Someone else from The D10 was there and called her out, saying, “Missy you can go way faster than that!”