Posted by I love marathons. It epitomizes the human grit and endurance. 26-mile long of pavement-pounding and grueling run. Though I have not run a marathon yet, I hope that someday I will be in one. I have run in three half-marathon in the past three years, so maybe I’m due for the full one next time.
The Boston Marathon is one of the more famous and elite races. You need to run a qualifying race just to even participate on it. For my age group (45-49), in order for me to be eligible, I need to have a previous time of 3 hours and 25 minutes or less. Really? I will be happy to finish it in less than 24 hours. Or maybe just to finish it, period!
But now this. The bombings in the recent Boston Marathon had saturated our news in the past couple of days. A day of celebration turned into a dreadful one. What a tragic event. What a senseless act of violence. My thoughts and prayers goes to all the victims and their families.
Will this horrific acts of terror forever change our love for marathon? Certainly not! We will not be deterred. We will not slow down. We will not back down. And like the fallen runner in the photo, we will rise up on our feet, and we will finish the race.
I will continue to run. I will continue to train. I will continue to participate in the races. We will continue to have marathon events. We will continue to live our lives and pursue the things that we love. Running the marathon will not only symbolize our perseverance. It will also signify our defiance.
Run. For the love of marathon. For the love of freedom. For the love of life.
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