And Now This

What happened yesterday in Boston hit me hard.  I tried to register for that race.

For most runners, Boston is the marathon of marathons, an elusive holy grail. Unlike other marathons, one must qualify for the Boston marathon with a specified finishing time in another marathon.  Some runners spend every effort in achieving a Boston time.  To run Boston is not so much a marathon as it is a celebration, reaching a lifetime goal.   Up until this year, just about anyone who qualified could run it.  Last fall, registration for yesterday's race sold out in a matter of hours.

"Running Boston" will never be the same.  One of our daughters has encouraged me for years to do it with her.  After what happened yesterday, it is no longer even on my radar.

Who would target people just out for a run?

Word came through yesterday, first in a trickle, a quick call from my big brother, as it hit the media, and then a flood of dismay.  I received frantic texts, phone calls, and emails from friends and family all over the country, "Please tell me that you are all right."

Yesterday, as the tragedy was unfolding, I was busy helping my daughter and her family get their car packed for their long ride home to Cleveland.  After a week of dashing after two preschoolers, crawling, climbing, and carrying them up and down the stairs, I had planned to go for a late afternoon run.  But after they left, it was raining hard and furious as if the world were sobbing.

Columbine. Aurora.  Newtown.  And now this.  I wanted to shout:   If you really have a need to make headlines, do something good.

I needed to run today because of what happened...  and for what could be.  For goodness' sake.

Depart from evil,
     and do good,
seek peace,
     and pursue it.

               Psalm 34.14