Read/Write/Run

Hi! My name is Ken. I'm going to periodically write about running, writing, and a number of other topics. Please feel free to read my posts and provide your comments. If you have a question about any topic, leave a message and I'll try to help you get the information you're looking for. Thanks for stopping by. I hope to see you again soon.



Thursday, May 9, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombings

In the early afternoon on marathon day, I was sitting in Burger King, of all places, watching a big screen TV when I first heard about the bombings. I had spent ninety minutes or so watching the marathon on-line earlier that day before going out to lunch. The whole terrible incident left me feeling sick to my stomach.

While driving home, I couldn't stop thinking about a number of bloggers that I occasionally converse with. They were running Boston. I immediately went home and tried to find out if they were okay. I've never actually met these fellow runners, but feel connected to them after reading posts about their running exploits and lives. Over the next several days, I learned that Laura at "On Your Left Please...",  Nicole at "Amazon At Another Level", and  Katherine at "Neon Blonde Runner" all finished before the explosions and luckily weren't physically hurt. But incidents like this can obviously affect you emotionally and the signs aren't so evident.

I've always felt comfort in difficult times in the company of family, but even more so with people who have experienced the same incident or similar things. Only they truly know what you're going through. That's why I'm suggesting that people at the race reach out to each other through blogging or whatever means they can. It can really help in my opinion. You don't have to be a runner to do this either. 

The Boston Marathon has been on my bucket list for a while. Unfortunately, my left knee issues have kept me from training  for a marathon lately. I've run three Hartford Marathons, each one slower than the last, back in 1997, 1998, and 1999, and have lacked motivation.  Do I have it in me to qualify for Boston? I don't know. It makes me so mad when I think about what happened. I haven't run longer than 8 miles in three years so it's a lofty goal.  It would be great to be able to pull it off. I'm older now, but  the qualifying standards recently got tougher.

Anyway, I'm betting next year's Boston Marathon will be one of the best!




2 comments:

  1. Are you sure it wasn't the BK that made you sick to your stomach?

    I think the bombings really made a lot of us think. Honestly, I've been racking my brain wondering about what horrible things could happen at Detroit for our Marathon, especially in some of the areas that are really isolated from the crowds, where someone could plant something and hurt a bunch of runner out where it would take a while for people to even notice or react. That and the tunnel and bridge could be a very scary situation. It's a shame this had to happen, and there are people that have lost their lives and whose lives are never going to be the same. I think we all empathize with those people to some degree, given that it easily could have been us or our loved ones in the same situation at another race.

    I think it's tightened the running community, and people have been very supportive of Boston, not to mention all the people that now want to get to that race even more and are stepping up their training to do so.

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    Replies
    1. I was thinking that it probably contributed to my stomach ache, but I'm conditioned to occasionally eat that crap.

      Runners have lost some innocence with the Boston Marathon incident. But I agree that it's also tightened up the running community and that's a good thing. Runners tend to be friendly towards other runners anyway, but this has definitely enhanced things.

      I know what you're saying about the Detroit Marathon, but London went off without a hitch shortly after the Boston incident. It appears that this incident was an isolated one. Anyone that runs Detroit will have a little extra nervous energy that morning that hopefully doesn't affect them too much.

      Thanks for sharing.

      Ken

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