Keep Running

I wear race shirts all the time. In fact, almost all of the shirts I wear running are from races, so it didn't feel particularly special to wear a running shirt "for Boston."  Please don't get me wrong; I understand the motivation.  I watched the videos of the bombs going off, the footage of Bill Iffrig being knocked off his feet and the chaos of runners and spectators and police rushing around the scene. My daughter will be eight-years-old next month, the same age as the youngest person killed in the Boston attacks.

We wore our shirts today to show support for those victims.  And in some ways more than that, we wore our shirts to show solidarity with runners around the world.  We wanted to show that we are all part of one community, some of the best of which were running in Boston yesterday. 

So as I laced up my Sauconys to head to the track for tempo intervals, I decided it wasn't really enough to wear the shirt on my run.  I can't wear a race shirt to the office, so I donned one underneath my work shirt.  I decided on my shirt from the Up the Lazy River 10K, which is held on Memorial Day each year.  Maybe no one would see it, but if anyone happened to ask, I'd be happy to talk about it.

Pondering all of this as I jogged out the door, some other reasons for wearing the shirt occurred to me.  Yes, I wanted to feel the camaraderie with the other runners I might see on the road or at the track.  But I was also wearing it for people who aren't part of this community.

Most of the world doesn't get the chance to go to a local track and practice speed.  Most people don't have neighborhood races for which they can train, where they can gather with their running buddies and swap stories or compare new shoes.  Sure, technically anyone can run anywhere, but I kept thinking about those people who are forced to run away from explosions like that--every single day.  And the people, even children, who never make it that far.  Three people were killed in Boston yesterday afternoon, but how many were killed by bombs and guns in the rest of the world?

This is not to discount what happened yesterday in Boston. Not at all. It's just that I realized how privileged we are that we can run for fun.

At least where I live, I can run just about anywhere I want and feel mostly safe.

I can run for my health and I don't have to run away from anything.

I'm wearing my race shirt for those people who aren't as fortunate. I'm wearing it because I wanted to celebrate all day long how fortunate I truly am.  I'm wearing my shirt because I can run.  I can run, so I will.