One of my friends ran the Boston Marathon yesterday. When I heard about the explosions, I freaked out at my desk. I knew what her start time was and I knew what her goal time was. The math told me she was at the finish line the exact time of the explosions.
Luckily, she finished the race exactly ten minutes before the explosions started. Had she finished ten minutes later, this story would likely be much, much different.
A little while back she was dating a fellow runner who she fell really hard for. When things didn’t work out between them, she was devastated. We went out to lunch all the time and would attempt to make sense of why things didn’t work out. She would say she wished she never met him. I’d say that someday, we’d probably understand why she did meet him.
The guy was always encouraging her to break her personal race records. He’d tell her to run a little faster and push a little harder and, sure enough, she started breaking her own records at races. Boston was no exception.
Once I finally got a text confirming her safety yesterday, I thought about how those ten minutes completely changed her life. And in some weird way, brought closure to that past relationship. She beat her personal marathon record yesterday – by about ten minutes. Thank you for the inspiration, former fling, and thank you for following through on it, friend.
My friend emailed this morning and said something weird was with her those last few miles, telling her to run faster and push harder. Good thing she paid attention to it.
As the stories of the Boston Marathon start to surface today, I think it’s important to acknowledge not only the tragic ones, but also the positive stories that make us think about our lives. My thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this bizarre tragedy.