Runners Unite

It's hard to know what to write on a day like this. It's hard to even fathom that someone would do something like this in the first place let alone at the Boston Marathon. I only started running last summer so I don't really feel like a runner, yet this feels so personal.

I'm not going to tell you anything that you don't already know or feel but next month I'll be doing a half marathon in Green Bay and I was worried that I haven't been getting in the training that I should be. I was worried that I might not do as well as I'd like. But now I just find myself wanting to run for the sake of running. If I don't get the time that I wanted, it just doesn't feel like that big of a deal anymore compared to what some people are going through right now.

Running has literally changed my life. Runners are such amazingly supportive people. They welcome you to their sport with open arms and I'm lucky enough to be part of an an online running group that I love. Runners don't care if you're better than they are. I do races with friends and not once have I been sad that I didn't do as well as they did. I'm happy for them and they are happy for me. At one race, my friend Karen could have had a much better race time but she chose to run together with me and we had so much fun! This is a sport for everyone no matter how young or old you are, whether you are slow or fast, you can be a seasoned runner or a beginner, you can run alone or with other people, race fans don't boo the athletes - in fact they're going to cheer for you even if you're the last person over the finish line and they don't even know you!

In addition the half marathon that I'm doing next month I'm doing a 5K the day before with my friend Kelly. I think Kelly is amazing - she's a 50 something runner (sorry Kelly, I'm giving away your age!) and this will be her first race. One time she said that she was worried about letting me down because she won't be very fast. I told her that this race was all about her. I'm going to stick by her no matter what and we're going to have fun because that's what runners do! She'll see very quickly that runners are a tight knit group and we only want our fellow runners to succeed and do the best job they can. But that's what also makes this more difficult to comprehend. But we are a family, runners are so helpful and generous and this is the reason that we will get through it, move on and dedicate our upcoming races to the victims of the Boston explosions as well as to the runners that finished and did not finish that day. We'll do anything we can to support them. That's what runners do.