Like so many others in the endurance and running community, we were shocked and outraged at the horrible and cowardly attacks at the Boston Marathon. I had three friends running in the marathon - all had finished 10-15 min before the blasts occurred - none were injured, thank goodness. Unfortunately, all came back with a very different perspective and experience than they had imagined. The excitement of finishing this great event was overshadowed by a whirlwind of feelings and some depression.
Mary Knott and Dan Beaver, owners of Cadence Running in Gilbert were two of those people. They finished the race together only to hear bomb blasts minutes later from their hotel room. Mary and Dan are two of my favorite athelete friends - they care and they give great advice to age groupers like me. They organized this Run for Boston in conjunction with many other Phoenix area locations - ours happened to be televised by Channel 12 News including their helicopter!
We all wore Boston Marathon gear or at least some sort of a race t-shirt - I chose the Pat's Run 2013 shirt given Pat Tillman is a Sun Devil and died fighting this type of terrorism. I sure appreciate the sacrifice our men in uniform give to allow people like me to spend their time swimming, biking, running or doing whatever. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
In honor of the three fatalities, we ran 3 miles - there I am in the middle having a great time meeting new friends and thinking about the events of Boston. What a great reason to run! Let's hope we never have to do something like this again!
DT
No comments:
Post a Comment