Thoughts from Boston Marathon 2013

The Boston Marathon 2013 will be remembered for years to come, unfortunately for the bomb blasts at the finish line yesterday than for the heroics of thousands of runners.

3 people died and 144 were injured - quite a large percentage of those injured, coming from spectators. Around 10 people had to be amputated due to the nature of injuries. Also moving was the story of the 8 year old, who was one of the dead, while about to greet his dad who was finishing.

While there was a series of blasts in Iraq which killed almost 30 people (on the same day), the Boston incident caught my eye first largely because until about an hour before the blasts, I had been live tweeting the race, which had been exciting. Kenyan Rita Jeptoo won the women's race and Ethiopian Desissa won the men's race. There were several other things to remember from the race including Jason Hartmann's brave run as top American and Kara Goucher crossing the line asking how Shalane did, just seconds after she did. Yolanda of Colombia who has her own inspirational story leading up to the race also had a good run, till a point. I could go on, but this post is not just about running.

Kate Carter of the Guardian has a nice post on their running blog making her statement on why we need to remember the joy of running, all over again on this day. Please do read it.

I am personally quite outraged by the fact that a space dear to me and an event which is pretty much in the heart of my life, for the most part, has been violated. I am not blind to other events like the Iraq one where loss of life is higher in terms of body count. Each such event hurts. Tragedy is not a contest. All suffering hurts. Some of it is personal, some vicarious. All of them sadden me and make me feel worse about the world we live in and where it is getting. Most of my disorientation, even since I found out about the event is largely from a conflict between rage and sadness tinged with cynicism.

I got way more emotional than I usually do because of the number of friends, etc who checked on my well-being thinking I may have been in Boston. For one who sat in the safety and comfort of his home in Bangalore, watching the race on TV, that was quite overwhelming.

I can only commiserate with the families and friends of the victims (both dead and injured) in Boston (and for that matter in Iraq) y'day and hope that things will improve.

I did run this morning since that is pretty much the only remedy which works to clear my head. I can't say it worked perfectly but I know I'd be worse without it.

Here's hoping for a better future.

Run safe everyone. Be nice to each other. At least, don't be nasty if you can't be nice.

The world is a better place without so much ill-feeling. Running is one way to keep it so.