Boston

Today I am not a home cook. I'm not a wife. I'm not a daughter or sister. I'm not a cousin. I'm not a business manager. I'm a runner today. I'm a runner every day, even if I don't actually run every day. I've run toward the finish line of half marathons, 10ks, 8ks, and 5ks...and each of them take a little something different out of you. Each of them offer their very own obstacles and challenges to your psyche. Each of them leaves you with a sense of accomplishment and an inner high five to yourself for pulling yourself through it. Each and every one of them leaves you with hope that your next one will be even better, the knowledge that you can continue to make yourself excel even more, and the glee that this one is under your belt and no one can take that away from you....except yesterday's Boston marathon. That run was taken from them. Those runners, volunteers, and spectators are/were wives, husbands, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, and cousins. They are you. They are me.

The feeling of coming into the finish line of a marathon with one of the biggest natural highs in life guiding your feet, immediately followed by witnessing, or physically feeling, the devastation of the explosions yesterday has to be mind numbing. The idea that these athletes put so much time, money, effort, sweat, and love into training their bodies to perform such a feat as to even qualify to participate in the Boston marathon only to have those very bodies torn apart violently at the pinnacle of their accomplishment is too hard to even fathom. It's ironic in a horribly sick way. And we don't even know who to blame....

I'm SO ANGRY!! I'm angry that whoever perpetrated this act would have so little regard for human life that they purposefully put shrapnel in the bombs in order to injure as many people as possible. I'm so angry that it is now a hard decision to want to attend a large event such as the Superbowl, the Indy 500, Mardi Gras, or the Boston Marathon....because being in a large crowd makes you a target. I'm angry that our children can't even cheer on athletes and look up to them on the sidelines, maybe dreaming about becoming a runner when they grow up, without being hurt or even killed for no reason. But I'm not scared...

I'm not going to allow the terror the people responsible want to inflict on us all to effect my life. I'm not going to paralyze myself with fear as they would like us to do. I watched yesterday as people ran toward the blasts to help other strangers, rather than away from the blasts to safety for themselves. People are inherently good. The majority of us will do what it takes when faced with adversity, and evil. There is pure evil in the world. But good will always prevail. You can blow us up or you can shoot us down....but we will stand united against you afterwards. And those of us who can't...their memories will live on and power the rest of us through the finish line.

I am running the Glow Run 5k this Saturday in Des Moines with my husband and mother-in-law, along with 12,000 other registered runners. I will be wearing this bib I pulled from RunJunkees for their virtual event to honor the victims. It's my symbol of solidarity with all other runners. It's my memorial to the fallen and injured runners, spectators, and volunteers. It's my middle finger up and waving to whoever orchestrated this disaster. Go to the link, print it off, run with it, and join me in the one finger salute to tell them we're not scared. We will run on.