Boston Marathon~ UNITED We Run!

The Boston Marathon is America’s iconic race, the oldest marathon in the country, and the most important. Eighteen people ran it in 1897; this year, the 117th running of the Boston Marathon,more than 23,000 people started the race.  If you are a runner you know this course is THE COURSE!  Over 1.3 million persons spend Patriots Day cheering and clapping for the runners. I sat at the edge of my chair at home~ as it was such an exciting moment to watch the Boston Marathon aired live!  This may be something that may not engage those who are not within the running community~ but as one who feels a sense of family I watched with sheer excitement, many members of this special community of mine running today.  I admit Boston is on my bucket list. I was entrenched in my social media outlets to cheer on those I know running.  Facebook and twitter allowed those of us who were watching to gather together and experience Boston.  I cheered as the first runners crossed and i was enamored by the men and women in uniform marching and running along with the Boston runners!  I had to force myself away to move forward with my nonMarathon day. 
Hours later, as the time approached that one of my Iconic heroes of running should be crossing, I checked back in to facebook to update myself and what was intended to be a day of joy and celebration quickly became a day in which running a marathon was of little importance.  The finish line today was not just one of the athletic sweating, straining, slowing, sprinting.~ but smoke, blood and horror filled the streets.  Chaos, blood and emergency filled the finish line, not the normal Chaos of finishing a race.  I sincerely was taken back to the same feeling i felt as i waited to locate loved ones on 9-11.  The videos of people fleeing from the blasts, with the smoke curling upward and rescue workers running to help were all to similiar.  Many runners I knew were quickly being accounted for, but not Bob.  It seemed much longer than the reality of the true time that passed. As i stayed glued to my phone, i got message that he had just crossed the finish line prior to the explosions.  Tears ran down my face, relief that my friend was ok, but also tears for those who had not escaped this horror!  My tears and horror quickly turned to anger.  The last mile had been staged in commemoration of the Newtown school shooting, in which 20 young children and six educators were killed in December. The finishing mile was dedicated to the victims of Newtown, and now reports that one of the three confirmed dead was another child, an 8 year old. 
As so many were injured and it is reported over 25 have lost limbs, it has been incredible to see the running community to pull together to do the only thing we know to do~ RUN! Our nation has proven we do not surrender and its marathoners won’t surrender to terror. United We will Run For the people who are dead and injured. I think they would want us all to never give up, not stop because of fear, to keep moving forward and keep running! We are definitely upset and deeply saddened, we are shaken by this event today at our Iconic Event~ The Boston Marathon, but we will not be broken.        Join us on 4-16-2013 as United We RUN! Running for good, not in fear.

 

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