Marathon

I am sad, this one really hits home.  If you have never done a marathon, it is hard to understand what this bombing stole from the participants.  I know certainly that the deaths and injuries are of course the most horrific parts of this bombing but there is another pain, not to that magnitude, but another injustice.

There is a reason why most runners/walkers do not just do one marathon, they keep going back.  It is painful and it takes will power and hours of training.  When you do a marathon or a half marathon it is almost life altering at times.  Your first one I think is the most amazing.  It is a time in which you really understand how much others can lift you up.  The cheerleaders during a marathon are just as important as water and fuel.  When I did the Baltimore marathon, my personal best time, I was hurting towards the end and it started to rain.  On the corner of a street about 2 miles until the end, someone was handing out gummy bears and telling everyone they were doing great and they could do it.  At that point it pumped me up and then around the corner was a group of people just jumping up and down and cheering and I increased my speed.  I credit the spectators for my personal best time.  

During a marathon you find out that you can do something that you never thought possible.  The bombing took a giant part of that away for it's participants.  I do know though that marathoners are a tight group.  Whether you placed first or were lagging behind, the Boston marathoners are bonded right now.  A bomb can not destroy that bond.

I have always loved reading about Alberts Salazar.  Below is a quote from him, you can read the full story if you click on it.

In April, on an old Massachusetts holiday called Patriot's Day, they'll run the Boston Marathon. Thousands of athletes from all over the world will gather just to compete in that one event. From the starting line in rural Hopkinton to the west, to the finish 26 miles, 385 yards later, downtown, at Boston Common, they'll be retracing a route of tradition and history and a piece of road named Heartbreak Hill. It's the one marathon that I, brought up in New England, dreamed of winning ever since childhood.

I just share that quote because it is likely the story of many marathoners that did Boston today they "dreamed of winning ever since childhood".

As I still ache from my 11. 5 on Sat that was just plain awful, I am a bit more motivated.   Please think of all the participants in the marathon and the spectators, equally important.  And I hope that this will only make the infamous Boston marathon more of an impressive marathon.  It will be a marathon of survival, a marathon of triumph over injustice.  Next year I pray that those who did not get the chance to pass the finish line get to do it next year.

I also have to add this, I am impressed by all the medical professionals and volunteers that helped today.  I wanted to share a quote from Mr. Rogers.

"When I was a boy and i would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me 'Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping.'"- Fred Rogers.