A Tale of Two Marathons

Monday during my lunch hour, I was minding my own business on Facebook when I noticed that neighbor from Idaho posted “Explosion at the Boston Marathon finish line at least 3 dead 30 injured turn on your news!” My first thought was of a current neighbor (in Utah) who was in Boston running the marathon. Of course I thought of Jay, who ran the Boston Marathon several years ago. I texted neighbor and friend to find out if she had heard anything about Tracy, our neighbor. She texted back that she saw Tracy’s husband interviewed on KSL. I took that tidbit of news as good news. At the end of today, I kept thinking of a question that my nephew (in his younger years) frequently asked - "Why?" Jay answered back “I don’t know” and I replied to his answer that we probably never would. For once I was serious when asking “Why?” Earlier in the day I had posted on Facebook “Why do we want to hurt our fellow man so much?”

The next day as I walked out of the Campus bookstore, I saw the heading of three newspapers (two of them local). When I saw Terror on all three front pages, I probably agreed with most of America that terrorist had invaded the Boston Marathon. I think this was my first resolve to get up early on April 20^th and watch the Salt Lake Marathon pass thru my neighborhood.

Late Thursday evening, I was on Facebook again. A different neighbor and friend posted “Not 5 min into the news....shootings at MIT....man....” It wasn’t until Friday morning at work (not on Facebook) that I learned that MIT shooting was apart of the Boston Marathon bombing. Suspect #1 was dead and Suspect #2 was on the loose. I was more determined to be cheering on the runners in marathon the next morning. When I left work, I told a co-worker that I was watching the race. That was before I knew about the capture of the Suspect #2. But the capture did cement my determination even more because I posted on Facebook “I don't care, I am going to be along the race route tomorrow morning. Thanks to the terrorists, they motivated me to get up early to watch.”

To my surprise and my ability to wake up earlier than usual on a Saturday, I was up to watch the race. While Jay and I waited for the marathon to come to our neighborhood, we watched the progress on TV. I posted on Facebook  “Waiting for the marathon to pass thru the neighborhood. It is now somewhere in the Parley's Way area.” Soon after eight, Jay and I were out in the rain cheering the racers on. If the terrorists weren’t stopping me from cheering the runner on, then I wasn’t going to let the rain send me back to a comfortable home.  

I watched most of the marathon pass thru my neighborhood. A number of runner thanked the cops along the route. A quite a few told us spectators that we were awesome. I don't think I've ever seen so much gratitude along the race route. It was nice to see Boston jerseys and those running in behalf of Boston marathoner(s).As I watched the race I also noticed green jerseys and t-shirts. I read later in Trib app on my iPad that a few runners wore green to honor the City of Boston’s Irish heritage. And I yelled out “Go Boston” to a few runners.

And when one of the last runners came thru, Jay and I walked back to the condo. Usually the cops providing traffic control don’t get notice.  Even though the crowd in my neighborhood was less than in years past, I was grateful for the support from the runners and spectators that I saw. Because of what happen in Boston earlier in the week, the Salt Lake Marathon was different this year. And may next year’s marathon in Boston be bigger and better.