The Shoes We Wore #BostonShoes

Lindsay LaMorre34
TorontoON - Canada

Two days of complete exhaustion and emotional depletion after the Boston Marathon … and I find both the desire and need to run. I ask myself why??

I run because it makes me smile and has the power to change a day.

I run because no two runs are ever the same.

I run because it fills my heart with joy.

I run because success and happiness lies within.

I run to keep my mind and spirit clear and strong.

I run because I value and care for my health.

I run to be with amazing friends.

I run to be a part of an incredible community of runners that have welcomed, mentored, supported and encouraged.

I run because of the journey.

I run to embrace adversity.

I run because I can.

What was supposed to be a celebratory, joyous, and momentous event … turned into disappointment. I ask myself why?

Was it the cowardly acts of terrorism that destroyed and deflated the whole event, manufacturing the run as completely meaningless? Was it my heavy heart for the victims who were fighting for lives and limbs? Was it the media that glorified the terror to enhance its spectacle?

Or had it been something more personal, more selfish?

Was it the thought that all those winter training hours suddenly deemed insignificant due to the bronchitis that had attacked my chest and lungs just days before I was to run? Was it that I couldn’t have my peak physical performance on the stage of the world’s oldest and most iconic marathon?

Maybe …

But the tragic events that occurred in Boston have impacted me personally and changed my perspective forever. My true disappointment laid within me … it rested in my inability to actually go back to the foundations of why I run in the first place. In the moment, I forgot to savor the opportunity and experience I was so blessed and privileged to have. Success isn’t measured by a stopwatch; it’s distinguished by the journey.

Explosions Sirens Chaos Panic Confusion

Why?

Within a blink, I may not have been so lucky—an opportunity lost and an experience taken for granted.

I finished the Boston Marathon.
I was with a loved one at the time of the explosion.
I was warm.
I had my belongings.
I was safe and healthy.
I was so very blessed.

I am fortunate enough to get a second chance in 2014 to revisit this question of “why?”

Running is my comfort … Boston is my inspiration.