Boston

This post is late. Like everyone else, I have been glued to the television and social media to make sure that my friends and loved ones are okay. Monday was a frantic day, loading and reloading social media because I didn't even know who to check up on. Anyone could have been there. Many people that I know were there but everyone is okay. Thank god. I did run cross country in high school with one of the cops that was shot, but I barely knew him.

When a client first mentioned something about an "explosion at the marathon finish line," I thought it was an MIT prank gone awry. An explosion at the Boston Marathon finish line? What? That makes no sense. No one would notice a dancing bear at the Boston Marathon finish line. I've been there. It's pandemonium. Then I walked by a TV screen and saw what he meant: runners crossing the finish line, and then an explosion, a man that looked like Grandpa hitting the ground, and other runners turning around as they ran the final few yards and hit their watches, because who's thinking about danger at a marathon finish line? All I could think about was how many times I'd had the thought at a marathon finish line at that moment I couldn't get out of the way of a speeding train. The stories of the runners who jumped to help the injured, or kept running to the hospital to donate blood hit me and every marathoner right in the heart. And what about the people 5 blocks back who just wanted to finish and now had to walk farther in the other direction with no food or water just to get home? Of course these people weren't the victims, but it's human nature to ask, who would I be in this tragedy?

Once the crowds were cleared, the victims' families had been reached, and the immediate shock of the incident had passed, the rest could sink in. I heard criticism of runners standing up self-righteously on the news and saying, "This will not keep me from running!" This is not about you, you self-important ass. Yes, there is a tendency for everyone to make tragedy about them, but it's true, this attack was not an attack on running. The Boston Marathon just happened to be an obvious target for some sickos to get some attention by hurting and killing some innocent people. But all the same, for the fitness community, it hit close to home.

As athletes and runners, we know that running stands for good. Runners and endurance athletes are not all saints, but when we are running, often that is the most positive thing in our lives. Running is the only way we know how to solve life's unsolvable problems and become better people. Whether becoming a better person means raising money for cancer research, or just blowing off steam so that we don't strangle our boss, when we are running we are innocent; as benign and separate from international politics as a classroom full of kindergarteners.

The finish line of a marathon symbolizes more than innocence. The finish line symbolizes achievement, and the culmination of months and years of runs that have brought us to that finish line better people. The finish line symbolizes overcoming fatigue, pain, and adversity to reach a goal that is important enough for you to endure that discomfort. The marathon finish line is an allegory for overcoming the adversity in life as well. If you can finish a marathon, then you can get through this tough patch at work, or survive a new baby, or survive the grief of a break-up, and come out stronger in the end. The Boston Marathon especially is the subject of every distance runner's fantasies. While most marathons are the culmination of months of work, the Boston Marathon is often the culmination of years of hard and dedicated work, a lifetime achievement that no one can take away from you. Something that will give you confidence forever.

The finish line of a marathon is also when you get to share your lonely sport and its quiet accomplishments with the people you love. If you have never run the Boston Marathon, then you should. There are people cheering for you every step of the way, and the entire city shuts down to come cheer in the runners. It is the only event I know where the Red Sox game that happens every Marathon Monday Morning is the opening band to the Big Event. This is the chance for family, friends, and loved ones to take part in your accomplishment. And in Boston this year, it wasn't the runners who were killed, but the spectators: the people who took their day off to celebrate our accomplishments.

And now runners around the country have been shaken to the bones. And as runners, we don't know how to fix the evil of the world except to run. So I will continue to run. Not because Boston was an attack on runners, but because running is a sport that I love, and I want to make it possible for myself and other runners to make the world a better place by placing finish lines on every road that we tread.