The Shoes We Wore #BostonShoes

Brian Bronk45
East LymeConn.

I was running with the MGH team for pediatric oncology. My son is a patient. I was running it in honor of him. I absolutely hit the wall during the last two miles, and just kept running because of him. I had finished the race, and saw my son at mile 20, and he also saw me come down the finish line. I had this wonderful feeling of accomplishment. I turned around to find him and Dianne, my spouse. I was looking forward to reconnecting with them and warming up. Then: BANG BANG. It was absolute confusion.

Most of the people in wave 3 are charity runners, who are running this to raise awareness and honor loved ones—and they didn’t have the chance to finish. Why go after people who had nothing to do with whatever is your issue?

What I’m inspired to do right now is find a marathon this fall which will allow me to qualify for Boston, to come back in the spring and run it again. The main reason to run it again is to honor those who lost something. While injured, while hurt, we will not be defeated.

—As told to Boston magazine