Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Finish Line

I had finished my race not as fast as planned, but as strongly as I planned.  Being off tangent by a quarter of a mile and not having the speed that I used to made it difficult to keep my goal time.  However I am still here.  With a respectable BQ-10 time of 3:34:28.  I’m going to leave it that.
I am still reeling from the terror attack on Boston Marathon.  Who will do this?  Why would they do this?  No one has yet claimed the attack (at least not publically) so it’s hard to understand. 
At Boston Marathon you’ll see that most of the spectators are runners themselves.  They are team mates, friends, training buddies, family members of the runners.  To hear that these people lost legs and feet is very disturbing. 
When the bombs went off, I had finished running a while ago and had already been relaxing comfortably in the warmth of Equinox Dartmouth, waiting for my sister and some friends.  I didn’t hear or see the explosion.  My sister soon followed and started to discuss what we should do for lunch.  Then suddenly, my husband came rushing in looking all panicked.  He said, “There’s been a bomb, we gotta go!!”
I thought he was being overly dramatic and thought, “How could it be a bomb?  I’m sure it was some small manhole explosion somewhere.” And told him we’re going to go shower.  It was at the locker rooms that I heard from an eyewitness who was seated right at the bleachers who said “there was an explosion right on the course.  At the finish line.  I saw limbs flying everywhere.”  Then it hit me.  This was going to be bad. 
And indeed it is.  As the news unfolded and as I saw graphic images, it hit me how lucky we were.  That we should be thankful that we finished, unharmed, and was still able to enjoy our victory.  It was short but my sister and I got to share festive, joyous moment congratulating our accomplishments.  Many others could not.
My thoughts and prayers to those who were hurt and are no longer with us.

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