Boston's Marathon of a Day

There is no day in the City of Boston quite like Marathon Monday.  It's the Patriots Day holiday in Massachusetts and with so many people out and about watching the race or the early Red Sox game or just enjoying the start of Spring, it has become one of the most celebrated days of the year.

For years, I have either worked the day of the Marathon at The Baseball Tavern or traveled into Boston to watch the Red Sox, drink a few - or more than a few - beers at The Baseball Tavern, and then wander down Boylston Street toward the finish line of the race.  In all the times I've done this, there has never been a bad day.  It's just one of those days when everyone seems to be having a great time and enjoying the fact that it is a great day to be from the Boston area and a great day to be out in the city.

And then yesterday happened.

The bombings that have already claimed three lives, including 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester, Massachusetts who was at the finish line to see his father finish the race, and injured well over a hundred people will forever mark Marathon Monday in a negative light. 

Sure, people will run the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Boston again starting next year and people will fill the bar rooms that surround Fenway before and after the Red Sox game and people will litter the sidewalks along the route of the race to cheer on family, friends, and random strangers but it will never be the same.

I have the upmost confidence that the people of Boston will push forwards and not let the sociopathic actions of, at this time, an unknown group of terrorists ruin one of the days that make the city so special.  People will run this race, many in memory of victims like Martin Richard, and people will watch and cheer but people will be in fear, fear of another bombing. 

Events like yesterday don't escape people's memories too quickly.  Nor should they.  Innocent people out to enjoy a special day were killed yesterday.  Innocent people out to enjoy a special day were seriously injured yesterday.  Innocent people out to enjoy a special day will forever remember the day when the Marathon became a side note and wondered where there loved ones where and wondered if their loved ones were safe.

I know that a year from now, I will either be slinging beers at The Baseball Tavern or going to the Red Sox game with my wife and our friends or, maybe, even running the Boston Marathon. 

I've never run more than a 10K but who knows, maybe to spite the people responsible for yesterday's tragedy, people like me will find the inspiration to train for the brutal and exhausting experience that is running the Boston Marathon so that the healing of the city can continue.

If I am one of those people, and with creaky knees and a belly too big for a guy my age I'm not making some emotional guarantee that I will be, I will do so because I don't want my city or one of my city's most special days to be another casualty of April 15, 2013.