Inspired To Run (Boston) Strong

Anyone else watch the Boston Marathon today?  Anyone else shed multiple tears while watching the Boston Marathon today or was I the only one sitting in their office, glued to the live feed and overwhelmed with joy and inspired to run?  What a difference a year makes!  Last year, it was tears of shock and horror and sadness that I shed on Marathon Monday.  This year, I was flooded with pride and awe as I watched all of those amazing runners press on for 26.2 miles.  I was inspired!  Inspired to run (Boston) strong.

After work today, I slipped into my  blue and yellow and went for a run in in honor of Boston.  I ran because it's what I do.  Running is my way of paying tribute to big things.  Today was a big thing.  Today we witnessed a sport's, a city's, a country's, and humanity's answer to terror.  Today we saw the definition of Boston Strong.

I ran last year in honor of Boston too.  But last year, I ran with a heavy heart to honor those affected by the devastation of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.  This year, I ran in honor of those who chose to come back and race again.  I ran for all of those who said they had unfinished business in Boston.  I ran for all of those who faced the pain and trauma of last year and said that they weren't going to let that be the end to their story.  As I ran, I honored the bravery of all of those runners who weren't going to let terror win.  I ran 4.7 miles to honor the approximately 4,700 runners who weren't able to finish last year's race, but agreed to run it again this year.  I ran in awe of all of those who trained like hell and ran like hell last year and said they were willing to do it all again.  I ran because it was all I could do to show my support for everyone who faced the fear of last year and ran today anyway.  I ran in tribute to all the Boston Strong runners.

 

 

I believe we are all Boston Strong.  I believe that it is our basic nature that when we are thrown to the ground, we dust ourselves off, get back up, and run on stronger.  At the very core of all of us is a Boston Strong runner.  We won't let anyone stop us.  When things are hard, we go harder.  We won't let the bad guys win.  We dig deep and find out how strong we really are.   It's only when we start letting the doubts and the can'ts and the shouldn'ts sneak in that we lose our confidence.  But, we need not lose our confidence.  We are STRONG.  We are BOSTON STRONG!