On Boston
While I have nothing to add, no poignant words of wisdom or revelatory thoughts about what happened in Boston Monday, I nonetheless feel compelled to write and slowly process what I witnessed unfolding on twitter Monday afternoon.
I write, like I run, to process the world.
Monday has already left an indelible impression on the world–the running community, those who love us and enable us to do what we are so passionate about doing, and greater humanity, to be sure–the type of impression that we’ll all be able to recall where we were and what we were doing when we heard (just put my toddler down for nap, making and eating lunch, and reading twitter/news).
Words can’t describe what has been racing, coursing, through the depths of my being since yesterday afternoon.
My heart aches.
My soul is shaken.
To say that I am horrified, and outraged, and saddened–though not necessarily in that order–undermines my capabilities to feel, my knee-jerk reaction as *both* a runner and as a member of the human race, and, I think, disenfranchises me and forces me to put a label on what my head and heart are battling and trying to understand right now.
I know that worse things happen every. single. day. in numerous pockets of the world, and while I, of course, am always saddened to hear about these tragedies, they often, unfairly, remain a distant memory in the course of my day–truthfully, if I remember them at all–because those things don’t happen here.
Boston is sacred ground for the running community, and specifically so for the marathoning community, and having been there twice to race, in 2009 and 2010, I know how special it is, and how hard runners have to work–and what sacrifices they and their family members must make–for them to realize their dreams of running in *the* Boston Marathon.
Running down Boylston after enduring the gruelling course, no matter your race time on Marathon Monday, simply can’t be beat.
My heart has shattered, and has continued to shatter, for the runners, and their family members, and the city of Boston, since Monday. How our races will change remains to be seen, but in the here and now, it’s imperative that we, the running community, continue to do what we know best:
run.
endure.
persevere.