As an aspiring runner, I spent a good part of my Patriot's day watching the strong people take the 26.2 mile journey from Hopkington to Boylston St. I had coverage up from boston.com and refreshed it well enough to see some of the pictures of people crossing the line. I hit F5 on my keyboard at 3 pm and I got an error page. I didn't think anything of it until I got an email from my friend saying "Did you see what happened at the Marathon?" I finally got to some national pages to read about explosions near the finish line. I took to twitter to see what some reporters I was following were saying. My friend, who went to college in Boston (at Emerson I believe), knew of the manhole "explosions" that happened in the city. I, not spending very much time there, immediately thought bomb.
I had planned a long post today about watching the runners, and the talks I had about seeing the men run a 5 minute mile for a great deal of the race. About how watching them and the 27,000 participants inspired me to push harder and to study their movements to be a better and more efficient runner. Later that evening it was learned that one of the 2 people killed in the explosions was an 8 year old boy, Martin Richard. I assume right now that most people know that I am a father of two boys myself. My wife and I have a highly energetic 3 year old and a compassionate, intelligent and talkative 7 year old. Hearing the news of how this boy, as well as his mother and sister, were seriously and gravely injured made everything else seem......trivial.
I am the type of person whose mind is always going. Sitting around, out for a run, driving, whatever it is. My brain starts coming up with different scenarios and I think about how I would react. Yesterday and this morning, all I could think about is: "What if I was out on the route or in the finishers area and it was someone I knew, or my family that was standing there?" I cannot fathom what anyone is going through at this point. These tragedies come up and I pretend to think that I would be this and I would be that in order to be strong for those around me, but would that really be the case?
The reason this comes up for me at this time is, beyond being a parent, that the people that were crossing the finish line were just like me as a runner. This happened at 2:50 pm, some 4:10 minutes into the Marathon. My initial reaction, as my wife can attest to, is that this was a senseless act of terror from some sect trying to make a statement on an international stage. My faith in humanity is so warped at this point with all the things we have seen from theater and school shootings, to crashing planes into building and now things like this. I would like to think that where we are as a society, we would stop the stupidity and try to work out our issues in a better way. The reality is violence is a part of humans, dating back as far as recorded, and will continue to be.
However, there was a "bright spot" in all the senselessness of the day. If anyone watched the news and the video of what happened, take heart in the way that the people there reacted. As soon as things unfolded, there was event staff, police, off-duty armed forces, and innocent bi-standards running to the aid of others. There was people that just completed running almost 26 miles that stopped their path to the finish and went to help before being diverted by safety personnel. That is the one thing, in my mind, that we as a society should take away from all this. The amazing response by the first aid people, the event staff, and the Boston police department that were already on the scene. Not a single person panicked, they got everyone they could safely evacuated and the scene secured almost immediately. Those people were true heroes on a level that no one watching on TV could possibly understand.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those injured or killed in this horrifying act. My thoughts and support to anyone that saw something they hoped they never would and are having a difficult time dealing with it. My support and admiration to the people that were just trying to finish their "bucket list" in running an amazing event. And my admiration and gratitude to everyone that reacted selflessly to aid others.
I am about to start my run this morning, and will continue to in honor of everyone involved. I will continue to push myself and try to get to the point that the thousands of people were at 2:50 PM on April 15th. I am posting this on Twitter and Facebook, if you like me to continue to so you can follow, please let me know. Otherwise I will quietly go about my business and try to get to the point where I can proudly say I ran a Marathon, like the 27,000 that registered and the countless that ran the 2013 Boston Marathon.
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