Boston

I had a very busy weekend, so I had other things I had planned to blog about today.  But I just can’t seem to focus on them.

The last couple of years, I’ve started following runners and running organizations on Twitter, so this morning I was seeing all kinds of posts about the marathon as people were getting ready for the start.

I was just checking Facebook really fast before I came back from lunch when I saw the news about the bombs going off in Boston at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  Naturally, I switched over to Twitter to try to get some more news on the issue.  It’s been several hours now, and I’m still in shock.

While I would never qualify for Boston (I’m just not fast enough and never will be), I couldn’t help but place myself in the race.  Based on my half marathon time, I figure I would be somewhere in the 5 to 5:30 time if I ever ran a marathon.  So in other words, I’d be right in the blast zone.  That sobered me up pretty quickly.

Of course, another part of me wonders why the bombs went off when they did.  Did they get delayed somehow?  I mean, Boston is the best of the best.  By 5 hours, the majority of the field should have finished.  For maximum casualties, the bombs should have gone off sooner.

But that doesn’t help those who died or those who were injured.  As I write this we know nothing.  I’m sure in the next 48 hours, we’ll have motive and suspects if not people actually arrested.  And then we can pick about who did this and why.

But it still saddens me.  This is a day that is supposed to be fun.  There is a huge sense of accomplishment for even finishing the thing.  And now someone has gone and ruined it for everyone to make some kind of point.  But who makes that point by killing others?

Of course, there are people who are trying to politicize it.  And that just makes me sick.  I mean, we know nothing.  How can you point the blame to anyone or speculate who is behind it without any proof?  That’s not reporting.  That jumping to conclusions.  And anyone with half a brain knows better than to do that.

Still, this is a sad day in our nation.  I am proud of the people who are banding together and jumping in to help.  I will be praying, and if there was more I could do, I would.