Its one of those days. We should be celebrating our friends accomplishments (my 8 runners from our marathon program), we should be talking about who BQ'ed for next year, what goals are next, what the course looked like, felt like, sounded like, did anyone see their signs from the Wellesley Girls? We should be jubilant and ecstatic! Yesterday was a "runners national holiday!" Now its been cast in a dark shadow... the day but not our spirit. Whoever planned this didn't understand a runners soul. They don't know how our spectators understand the love of running and how much heart it takes to get to Boston. They they stand by the gates and CHEER everyone on!
The person or people who did this, they have no clue that this tragic event where people were undeniably and irreversibly harmed or killed, it brought us together. Together they help when others needed them more than the importance of a finish line. Runners ran to the rescue of those hurt, race officials and EMS were right there to carry people to safety, to hospitals, to waiting areas out of harms way. Runners ran THROUGH THE FINISH LINE AND TO HOSPITALS to give their own BLOOD! First responders who carried people out in their arms when there was no access for the ambulances. It was the military, firefighters, police, runners, race officials and volunteers who ran TO those who were hurt, not away. You picked the wrong people.
"If you are trying to defeat the human spirit, marathoners are the wrong group to target" -Mighty Brights status on FB
Yesterday I was fine as long as I had a job to do, track our 8 runners plus the handful of other local runners we knew were there and their families down. That is until I talked to my friend Traci via FB messenger, then I lost it, sitting in the car waiting for my son to get out of school when she asked me if there was something she could for me. I couldn't even reply as I was racked with sobs. She knows that runners are a "tribe," we are a FAMILY, we are a community no matter what city, state, country we live in. She quantified how I felt, that my heart was in Boston, wanting to keep all our "ducklings" safe. In my heart I'm a mom to more than just my children, even if all but one of our runners I helped coach to Boston were older than me. I want to give them the tools to succeed, then watch them do it! To not know what was going on was heartbreaking and scary.
So my question is What Can We Do? What can we do to prove that this terrible day did not define us as a country or as runners? What can we do to support Boston, its runners, spectators, race crew and the city? What can we do to show the person or people who terrorized OUR race that this does not scare us into submission but will lift us up? What can you do? I wore a race shirt today (and probably a different one all week). I will run tonight and ask my runners to run in honor of Boston. I will keep telling people that running is a community and not just an exercise. Running brings us together when these bombs tried to tear our spirits apart. We will not be unraveled, we will not be subdued. We will not be scared because that means you won. We won't let that happen.
I love this quote by Kathrine Switzer
"If you are losing faith in human nature go out and watch a marathon."
