I am a runner.

Disclaimer: This post is more my rambling thoughts about the bombings at the Boston Marathon. I didn’t spend a whole lot of time editing and making it pretty, I hope you’ll understand. 

When the text came through from Bill while I was at work my heart sank. “Explosion at Boston Marathon” was all it said.

Almost simultaneously the alert came through from Action News, thankfully it had a few more details than Bill’s text. Two explosions near the finish line. My first thought was, who is at the finish line? Families! People waiting for their loved ones to cross that line so they can celebrate that astonishing achievement. I thought to were my family would be if I was running and the only answer is the finish line. Hell, the finish line is where Bill plans to be when I run The Broad Street Run.

I was stuck at work for those first few hours after and I can honestly say that I’m happy I was. Even though I had my moments of choking back tears at the mere thought of what was unfolding a few hours north, work was a welcome distraction from what I would see on the TV when I finally made it home.

It took all of two seconds of the news to break me down and have me sobbing.

Today brought with it a new, sunshiny day but there was no escaping the news. There was no way to hide from my children that yet again someone had carried out an unspeakable act on innocent people. Again I found myself choking on tears.

Tuesday is my running day and as I took those first steps, it was hard. I thought about how much time I had put into training which only lead me to how much time and effort all of those runners put in to get to the Boston Marathon only to have it marred by such tragedy.

At just that moment I started hearing the cheers of my friends coming through my headphones as they sent me their encouragement. God I love technology.

As I ran I thought about all those people in Boston and how much I wanted to be there for them and how everything I could think of seems so hallow and narcissistic.

I thought about the Boston Marathon itself. It was just a few weeks ago that I was reading an article about it in Woman’s Running magazine, Boston Knowledge (26.2 fun facts about the marathon). I learned that the Boston Marathon is truly something special, not only is it the oldest marathon (dating back to 1897) but it’s one of only a few that you actually need to have a qualifying time from another marathon to race.

I remember reading those 26.2 facts and thinking that Boston is a race I want to run someday. I even looked into what I’d have to run to qualify (I’d need to run a marathon in 3 hours and 35 seconds…or less). From that article on the Boston Marathon was on my bucket list, something in the back of my mind to work towards. The thought of having the opportunity to run in Boston is part of what gets me out when it’s cold or raining or even snowing to log those miles.

After what happened yesterday my resolve has been made even stronger. I will make it there someday.

What some people may not know is that there’s a real sense of community amongst runners. Sure, we compete on race day but we look out for each other and we take care of each other. If you didn’t know that before, it was made perfectly clear yesterday as runners left the course to help those who were injured on the sidelines.

Running today I came across a few other people running and they all smiled, waved and said good morning to me. It wasn’t just today though, it happens every time I go out.

What happened yesterday should never have happened. Innocent people were hurt and lost their lives in such a senseless act. I hope that some good can come of this and that through all the pain we can find something good.

Stay strong and run on!