As Dance Marathon participants found their way to bed at 1 a.m. Sunday, DM co-chairs Lauren Troy and Ryan Farrell still had work to do. Troy and Farrell stayed to clean the tent with the DM executive board until 4 a.m. and were back at 10 a.m. to finish the job.

“Basically we were up from 2 a.m. Friday to 4 a.m. Sunday, ” said Troy, a SESP senior. Troy said the executive board woke up at 2 a.m. Friday to pick up food and kept going from there.

“At times the toughest part was staying awake,” said Farrell, a McCormick senior. “Dancers aren’t allowed to have caffeine, but committee members are. I’d have the occasional can of Diet Coke. But the best thing to do was just remove myself for a little bit and relax.”

Troy said she took a different approach to staying awake.

“When I was hitting a wall, I’d go back into the tent,” she said. “Dancing and getting excited again was very effective. Feeling the energy of the dancers is re-energizing in its own way.”

After almost one year of planning for DM weekend, the co-chairs said they were pleased with the results.

“The weekend was surprisingly flawless,” Farrell said.

Troy said the only problem she encountered was trouble with the dancers who had food allergies.

“There were a few hiccups, but nothing unexpected,” she said. “I was more relaxed during the weekend than the three weeks leading up to it. It was nice to see everything fall into place,” she said.

Troy and Farrell said they were “thrilled” when they found out last April they would be leading the executive board together. The two said they have known each other since their freshman year.

“I was jumping up and down and yelling when I found out I got chair,” Farrell said. “It was really cool to work with someone who’s such a close friend.”

After working for up to 40 hours per week since last April, the co-chairs said they enjoyed surveying their hard work the weekend of DM.

“We got to dance and got to watch,” Troy said. “We had a schedule of where we needed to be the whole time. We especially made sure we were there when we needed to be on stage. We were making sure we were at all different events to check in.”

Farrell said in addition to his schedule with Troy, he made a “personalized schedule” of when he could see his family, who came up to support him for the weekend. Troy’s family also attended.

Farrell said DM weekend was emotional.

“Lauren and I got a chance to stand on the visiting platform and see all of the dancers run into the tent at the very beginning,” he said. “Everything had culminated. DM was actually happening. I am not an emotional person in general, but I started crying and Lauren started crying.”

One of the most intense moments, Farrell said, was when the finance committee called them in to announce the total amount of money raised: $854,396.

“We found out and kind of became this sobbing mass of hugging,” he said.[email protected]