Monday’s Post – A Day Late

I got back from a few days in Estes Park, Colorado late on Sunday evening. I spent much of the day Monday in bed not feeling well, but planned to blog later in the afternoon.

Then I got a text from one of my running partners asking if I was seeing what happened in Boston, and from that moment on I couldn’t take my eyes off the television and the horrific pictures of explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. I had been watching the race live online just an hour before, but had laid down to rest and turned it off.

Like everyone else I was shocked, horrified, scared, sad, and questioning who does this and why. I was thinking about all the times that my family has been waiting for me at the finish line of a race. I was thinking about my kids and whether or not they would now worry every time I run a race. I was thinking about the families that started out celebrating the accomplishment of their runner only to end the day grieving loss – of life, of limb, of health, of a feeling of safety.

Just like I remember sitting in my office trying to access CNN.com to find out what was happening on September 11, 2001, and wanting nothing more than to run to my infant daughter and squeeze her tight, I will always remember sitting on my bed in stunned silence watching video of the explosions on Boylston in complete and total shock.

Running for me is freedom. It is therapeutic. It is those moments when the stuff of life falls away with every step. It is empowering. It is learning to push through the tough stuff. It is breaking down barriers. It is life.

Whoever did this vicious act tried to steal this from us.

But they won’t.

We will still run. We will still race. We may do things differently on race day, but we won’t stop.

And we won’t live in fear.

Just like I told my kids after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, we live our lives in a way that we have no regrets. We live for Christ and we don’t live in fear.

So as I pray for those dealing with the aftermath of yesterday’s events, I pray for healing, and for each and every one of them to run whatever race is set before them today so that they can say: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7).