Boston in my heart

04.15.13

I am heartbroken.
I am mad.
I am shocked.
I am so so sad.

I started the day by watching the live feed of the Boston Marathon online. I stayed glued to my iPad until the live feed went off. It looked like the perfect day to run 26.2 miles. I was happy for all my friends who were there for this very special marathon.

I have said this many times, I admire all of you who are marathoners. I have yet to cover that distance. I admire all of you who are Boston Qualifier, I am always so happy to read a race recap of a brand new BQ runner.

I was tracking everyone I know who was there, most of them from my HTC-NUUN team; from Mason, NUUN Chief Hydration Officer and driver extraordinaire of my HTC van, who ran a "training" run of 2:54:41 to Jessica who ran a PR to Susan who BQ again in Boston. I was tracking 10 or 12 people total and looking at all the posts on twitter, FB and Instagram and was feeling happy and inspired by all these great runners.

A little after 11 I started my run on the TM. My phone started to beep a lot so I picked it up to see what was going on.... First thing I saw was a tweet from Mason saying "this is unbelievable, I am fine." I thought this was strange..why would he need to say he was fine... At first I thought he had been in an accident or something...but then I saw all the other tweets and realized what had happened. I wanted to throw up. I turned on the TV and saw the horrible images.
I could not believe what I was seeing. I sat there not able to just look away...until it was time to get the kids. When we got home I kept the TV off. I did not want the boys to see the footage of the explosions.

Later I found out that one of the victim was a little boy who was there supporting his dad. Martin.
That is the name of my brother and father.
Martin. 8 yrs old.
My heart broke.
That is the age of my Will. This hit close to home for me.
An 8 yrs old boy standing at the finish line waiting to see his parent cross the finish line.
My kids do this for ME about 15 times a year.
This innocent little guy is gone. He did nothing wrong. He just stood there waiting to see his dad.
I read that he did see his dad cross the line just a few moments before the first bomb went off.

I don't understand how human beings can be so evil. I don't understand how they can live with themselves knowing they took the life of an 8 yrs old child and 2 others and injured so many.

Why.
Why do this.
Attack runners and their families and friends.
Attack innocent people.

I feel so sad for everyone who was there. That they had to go through this horror. Hear the screams and see the devastation.
I feel sad for all the victims and the families.
I feel sad for all the runners who invested so much to get to that special race and had this ugliness take all the magic away.
I feel sad for all the runners who worked so hard..some for years to get there and who were stopped at mile 24 and never reached that blue and yellow finish line.
I feel so so so sad for Martin's parents.

Today I put on a race shirt and join the "Runners united to remember " movement.
4 miles for Martin and all the victims of this horrible tragedy.
RIP sweet little boy.