The Boston Marathon of 2013 won’t necessarily be remembered for the times, or the fact that Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan peed together on the start line of the race, but instead, the horrific bombings that took place at the finish line. I wasn’t aware of what happened until around 5pm while in the bake shop of our quantity food production course. I was getting the rice pudding plated for 50 people and one of my professors came in and told me what had happened. To feel completely helpless and gutted would be how I felt. I couldn’t go get my phone to check on people I knew, I couldn’t google to find out more, I just had to continue with my class and have it heavy on my heart and mind the rest of the day.
You can continue to ask yourself why, and what causes people to do this, but it’s an ongoing circle because I’ll never ever understand why people go forward or even think acts like this. The fortunate thing is that the explosions were at the finish line, and if you have ever ran a race, especially a big race, you will know there are tons of medical staff, police and officials. Normally we see people crawling, jelly legged and passing out from fatigue, exhaustion etc from the 26.2 mile race they just endured. April 15th, 2013, we saw images of a lot worse. The running community is one like no other and it showed. Mass General Hospital was filled with runners donating blood, even those who had just run the 26.2 mile race. Runners throughout the world won’t be scared away from this attack and will continue to train harder than ever before. To have the patience, time and commitment to train for a marathon and compete, takes a strong individual. These individuals are fearless as they compete the race and why stop now? What happened is devastating but I have a feeling the Boston Marathon 2014 will have more applicants than ever.
It has been asked for people to wear race shirts in dedication to Boston. It breaks my heart to know some people didn’t get the opportunity to finish their journey of their hard work in training. It also breaks my heart to those who may never get to run again and those who may feel guilt. I can’t even begin to imagine what those families and individuals are going through. But I can pray for peace and that is what I’ll do.
