Got a comment from a reader of the blog asking if I was in Boston today and if I was ok. It is pretty well known my deep desire to BQ one day.
I was not in Boston, still trying to BQ. So all is well. And I’m touched by your concern.
More important, those of my friends who were in Boston today are all accounted or and safe. I am thankful for their safety and appreciate their friendship even more now.
I think about the first responders who ran to danger. I consider the runners who finished the race and ran to donate blood, or to help the fallen. I ponder the sort of person who would hurt their fellow human in this way. And I wonder how will we respond. Will we harden our hearts and let cynicism at “a world gone mad” destroy the hope and optimism that is at the heart of our true selves, deep in our souls? Will we shy away from large races in large cities? Or will we keep running, continuing our quest to run our BQ, or our PR, or to raise money for a well deserving charity? I believe that we will do the latter. It is in our spirit as endurance athletes. It is what drives us to improve ourselves. I believe that we will draw inspiration from the fallen, the rescuers, the nameless many who helped in a time of need. I believe we will run farther and stronger tomorrow. We will run out of gratitude for our well being, and to remember those who can run no more; to show the world that we are a resilient lot, we runners. It takes more than a bomb to stop us. It takes more than fear to halt our stride.
Let’s run, shall we?
This Running Life 
We shall indeed.
Amen Gordon!
Well said. Run on.
Tonight, my husband and I watched CNN, until we could no longer take it. He said that It was plausible that he and our children could have been it that crowd waiting for me to finish – on a side note, I love his optimism that he believes I can run Boston.
My heart hurts from the events of today. My friends who remained on the course were close to the finish. I’m so glad they weren’t hurt.
And just like you said, I will continue to run. It’s the spirit of an endurance athlete. With that being said, I will run with the victims of Boston in my heart and on my mind for a long, long time.
very well said G!