Since today is Tuesday, I’m linking up with these wonderful ladies:
Erika @ MCM Mama Runs, Marcia @ Marcia’s Healthy Slice and Patty @ My no-guilt lifefor
Today’s Topic is: Boston
No, I have never run the Boston marathon but every year at this time, I think back to that terrifying year – 2013.
This is what I posted on my blog then:
April 16, 2013
I already posted today but Boston is the only thing I have been thinking about since yesterday afternoon.
As a runner, it is always so exciting to follow the race and listen to the enthusiasm of those before the race and stories when they return.
This year was no different.
Yes, I knew runners that were running it (from blogs and from races).
me & Colleen at the Race for the Cure 2009
I work with Colleen and we started running at the same time. We ran several 5ks together and chatted about running whenever we saw each other. She is a natural runner. After I started running half marathons in 2011, she joined a running group and ran a 15k and then a marathon.
Colleen running her 1st marathon
Last October, she ran her 2nd marathon and BQed. She was in Boston yesterday running the marathon.
SRM running Group with Melissa (2nd from right) – March 2010
I met Melissa when I was part of a beginning runners’ group in 2010. She had just had a baby and was returning to running. I have since seen her at many races. She has quickly gotten back her running form and has run everything from 5ks to marathons. Her goal is to BQ and I am sure she will. She was at the Boston Marathon with her family cheering on local runners.
Melissa & her daughter at the marathon
Here is a FB comment from one of our group who ran the race: “…I did not finish. I saw the 1st explosion and then was directly across from the 2nd one. So I ran away from the craziness….”
Sisters Laura & Michelle at the 2011 Boston Marathon
When I was teaching French, I taught Laura & Michelle. They were two of my best students. Michelle was and is a runner. I see her at local races. She ran Boston last year and was running it again this year.
Thankfully everyone I knew and runners that my friends knew are fine!!!
There are no words to explain the horror of this event! 27,000 runners were there. Probably 100,000 spectators. As a runner, I know how hard it is to qualify, what it means to compete in a race, what is means to finish a race. This was taken away from about 9,000 runners. Even the ones who did finish, this senseless tragedy has taken all the joy away and has left them with memories of fatalities and injury and fear!
Here are 2 stories that I recommend reading:
I am a runner. I am not a fast runner. I will probably never run a marathon. Hence, I will never qualify for Boston. But I am a runner.
Today I am wearing blue and gold. I played tennis last night & will play tonight so I had not planned to run. But I will run 2.62 miles on the treadmill at lunch in honor of the victims in Boston.
2.62 on the TM
I will wear my half marathon race shirt when I play tennis tonight.
I will also dedicate my 5k race on Sunday to Boston and wear the cap above.
This week I am also joining up with Running on Happy, Suzlyfe, Crazy Running Girl, and Coach Debbie Runs each week for the Coaches’ Corner linkup
Happy Running! Did you ever run the Boston Marathon? Did you know anyone who was there in 2013? Do you hope to BQ?
I actually did not know anyone there, and while I will never run Boston, I did feel strongly called to do the Heartbreak Hill Half and visit the Boston finish line afterwards, too.
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I hope to do the BAA 5k some day and visit the finish line.
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That year was chilling. I sat here watching it on TV and the footage looked so much worse than what they were reporting at first. Turns out it was. I shudder when I think about where my family and friends were standing along that finishing stretch in the years I ran. It was just a different year.
Love your blue and gold!
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Very scary indeed
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It was indeed a poignant moment and memories to follow. I read articles that followed on the camaraderie of the running community. Love truly runs the world.
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Agreed
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There is some footage when one of the bombs goes off and you see an old man go down. He is from here, my little town of Lake Stevens. The news did a followup on him last summer, I think he’s 82 now, and he is still running unholy distances. (After the bomb went off, he got up again and finished the race as he was only 500 ft from the finish line).
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Great story!
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I remember this date all too well. My sister was running the Boston Marathon that year. The first bomb went off just as she crossed the finish line. What horror.
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Wow. How scary! Were you there?
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I didn’t find out until later that I had an old high school friend who was running the race that year. Thankfully she made it through safely. I can’t believe it’s already been 4 years since that horrible attack.
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I know. It seems like yesterday.
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I didn’t know anyone there but I remember watching it on TV and crying…. crying that something so American, so symbolic, so close to home (I am a runner AND lived in Boston 5 years) could be attacked like that.
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