The firework that shook a community...

April 15th began with excitement for me as I was ready to watch the Boston Marathon on and off as I cared for my 2 year old. I kept the live event streaming on my computer so I could pass by and see what was happening. I imagined all those runners from my running community on Facebook that I have come to know and now call friends. We all cheer each other on. I have found we are friends as soon as we recognize one another's love for a sport that is about will and determination. 

I watched and my heart skipped beats as I saw faster runners crossing that line. I thought to myself if I could possibly ever get there. Each runner that passed lit a fire in my heart. I began to flirt with the idea that maybe after several years of hard work, I might get there one day. Runners crossed the line with a smile and I cheered for each one. Each of them inspired me.

What was exhilaration and joy turned into despair and fear. Two blasts that brought me to tears and stole my breath and made my heart feel as if it had sunk to the floor. I prayed for the hurt. I prayed for those still out there. I prayed for all the runners that were achieving a dream and had worked years or months towards this one moment to have it taken from them by cowards. My son walked into the room and said "Look Mami, firework, big firework". Tears in my eyes, I turned him away and said "If only my sweet boy, if only that was what it was". These are words I will never forget. In my head, the bombs became the firework that shook our running community. It shook but it didn't break. 

One day later, I think how foolish of these cowards to attack our running community. How ignorant to attack a people that are one. Running is a sport where the human spirit prevails, where your heart takes you further than your mind ever dreamed of. It is a sport about camaraderie where you belong no matter how slow or fast you may go. A sport that does not have any violence in it but is built on the sweat, tears and hours of hard work of each individual. On the line to start a race, all those hundreds or thousands of individuals become one. The runners become one.  They are one mass, one wave flowing together, moving forward, one step at a time. And in that same manner, this one community built by thousands who run together, will continue striving forward, moving together, one step at a time, growing stronger and more united.

I am proud to be a runner.