The Boston Marathon

Sitting here, just outside Boston the morning after the Marathon thinking about yesterday's events. I won't let this coward ruin my memories of this trip, our visit with family, and the running of The Boston Marathon. The day started off beautifully with the sun shining and just a bit of chill. Paula and I made it to Hopkinton, visited friends, and watched all the other runners stretching and excited for the race. Paula and I started the race together but soon separated, finding our own paces; mine faster than hers. I was excited and happy at the half way because I was still ahead of Paula and had a great half-marathon time of 1:40:00. I fell of the pace at mile 17 and Paula soon caught up and passed me a few minutes before I saw Rick L. cheering and waiting for Andrea. From there, my legs were done from last weekend's 150 miler and I had to do a bit of walking to finish up the race. Bit I did finish the Boston marathon! And I finished smiling. No worries, no cares, just taking and celebrating with the other runners and volunteers. Paula ran it in 3:43 and I did it in 3:52. Paula and I met up at our bag drop area and headed to the T station at Arlington on our way out of town and to our cousin's work where we were to meet up and head home. The T was stopped at the next station, Hynes, and we were told to leave because of an emergency. The day was perfect up until then... I knew there was trouble when we exited because of the police and ambulance traffic. I contacted my cousin, looked at the map, and got Paula walking toward our pickup and away from the chaos. We found out a we were walking that two bombs had gone off at the finish line directly above our subway train... From this point, the country knows the rest. The person that did this is a coward and his actions were senseless. If he was trying to cause terror, he failed - what I saw was every able police, fireman, ambulance, and local running toward the explosions to help. He didn't cause terror, he caused sadness. The sadness we all feel for the families of the injured and grief we all feel for the losses. But let us not forget this weekend or the race or Patriot's Day! or the bombing. Remember it all.

The Potowatomi Trail 150 Miler