Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Wicked Awesome



Today, we wake up (yet again) in a world that doesn't make sense. A world where some cowardly insane person (or group) decided to hurt many innocent individuals by detonating two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Bombs that killed eight-year-old Richard, twenty-nine year old Krystle, and a graduate student from Boston University whose name is yet to be released. Hundreds of people were treated in local hospitals with many still in critical condition.

Since I went to Boston College, and lived in the city for a year after graduation, I can assure you that Patriot Day/Marathon Monday is one of the best celebrations in the USA. Patriots Day is officially April 19th and it's a holiday only honored in Boston. It's officially celebrated on the third Monday in April. The Boston Marathon has been ceremoniously held on that day since 1969. And the Boston Red Sox have a home game at Fenway on Patriots Day.

To say it's a fun day to be in Beantown is an understatement. Businesses are closed. Schools are closed. Almost every place that doesn't serve food and drink is closed in honor of a day where visitors and locals come together to celebrate the human spirit.

The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon. Considering our nubile country is just a mere 237 years old, that's a pretty amazing statistic. 

Boston College is located at miles 20-21 of the 26.2 mile course. It's lovingly and brutally referred to as "Heartbreak Hill" due to its slow steady incline and that it’s located at one of the hardest segments of any marathon when runners tend to hit that proverbial wall. This may be why I have such fond memories of going out to “Comm Ave” to cheer on the tens of thousands of runners as they crippled by. B.C. students felt some semblance of responsibility to instill in these inspirational runners the need to keep going, to fight through the pain, to make it to that finish line.

I remember the runners who would put their name on their shirt. Genius! We would scream their name as loud as we could. Go Ben! You can do it, Ben! Let's go, Kathy! You're DOING it, Kathy! Keep it up! Congratulations, Sarah! Look at YOU GO! You're awesome, Jack!

Then there were those who ran with a group, or with a school, or put their favorite sports team on their shirt. Let's go, Diamondbacks! Yea, Boston College Eagles! Oh, too bad you are a Steelers fan but you're still doing a good job! It didn’t matter where you were from, what your name was, or which team you rooted for. The masses were united on Marathon Monday.

Marathon Monday is such a fun, beautiful celebration that made me proud to be a Bostonian, even if it was only for a few short years. I left my heart there in 1996 when I had to move home for many reasons beyond the scope of this blog post. I always planned to move back, but alas, life took me in a very different direction which is par for the course.

I'll never be able to root for the Red Sox or the Patriots (what is WITH those teams anyway?!?!?) as they continue to plague my beloved Orioles and Ravens. But my heart bleeds for Boston today. I'm heartbroken to know that Marathon Monday and Patriots Day is forever tainted in history. We'll never be able to find beautiful pictures of Marathon Monday online again because of the thousands of photos and videos of this particular day. The 117th Annual Boston Marathon is forever stamped in our minds as one of those lifetime events that everyone will remember where they were when they heard the horrific news.

My memories will serve as peace as I remember crisp Spring afternoons with blue skies, good friends, food and frosty beverages, and tens of thousands inspirational people from across the globe who were running for their lives...in a good way.

Boston, you are wicked awesome. God bless you. And God please help the many families directly affected by this senseless act.