April 16, 2013
Today was a hard day. While I worked, I had the TV on all day and I was watching coverage of the horrible events at the Boston Marathon.I will not be afraid. I will not be deterred from living my life. I will continue to run and I will run another marathon and I will do my Ironman. I will go to Disney and other "targets" around the country. I will not be cowed by terrorists, domestic or foreign.
They will not, and can not win. I am a fucking New Yorker, first of all. I lived through 9/11 and I remember everything about that day. It didn't scare me then and I won't allow it to scare me now. I will get angry though!
I don't know if this was motivated by religion, geo-political issues, power, land, hate, fear or whatever other reasons that terrorist act. I won't get into their reasons and if they are valid or not. In my opinion, attacking innocent civilians is cowardice. It is cowardice when the US does it and it is cowardice when other nations do it. Making innocent civilians pawns in your struggle for whatever the fuck you are struggling against just makes your struggle less important, less valid, less reasonable, and just plain not right.
If this was done in the name of religion, you don't know what religion is SUPPOSED to be about. Most people don't which is why I have no place for it in my life.
If this was domestic and you are railing against the government, then you don't understand the role of government and you don't deserve our Constitution and you should get the fuck out of the country.
If this was what many assume and you are the standard Islamic terrorist, then you are just fucking stupid. Do you remember the last time you did something like this? Millions of your people died because of 9/11. I am in no way condoning either the Iraq or Afghanistan war, but what do you have to gain? You aren't scaring anyone. You aren't winning anything. You are not getting any virgins in heaven (seriously, why would you want virgins...I'd prefer some experienced women!!) You are not gaining any new allies. You are just putting your people and your religion and your entire belief system under a microscope that shows it to be nothing more than a pathetic dark age, misogynistic, hateful, backward, discriminatory and violent system.
In 100 years, you'll all be gone and so will most of the people who believe as you do. So live it up. It will be over soon enough.
The Boston Marathon is the holy grail for runners. Sure, many of us have run they NYC Marathon or another great (and better) marathon than Boston. But Boston is special. It is kind of like the Hawaii Ironman. You don't just sign up for Boston. You have to earn it. You have to be fast enough and you have to qualify. Qualifying, for me, is a distant dream. My only chance is that as I age, I don't get too much slower and the qualifying times eventually meet up with my running times!
At my age, I would need to run a 3:15 marathon to qualify. My only marathon I ran a 4:21. That would mean I would need to improve by over an hour! What!! I would only have qualified for Boston with that time is if I was in the 70 - 74 age group!
So, I am probably not going to qualify for Boston anytime soon. But if I got in next year, I'd be there will bells on and a target on my back and I'd dare those motherfuckers to strike again. I'm not scared and me, Honey, and my little ones are going to live our lives every day without being afraid.
The rest of you should too.
My heart goes out to everyone who was hurt and to the families of those who were killed. Stay strong. The country is behind you.
Here are my numbers for today. I dedicated this run for Boston. My run was filled with thoughts for you.
Time: 20:00
Distance: 2.20 miles
Pace: 9:05/m
Max Pace: 7:32/m
Calories: 284
Avg HR: 129
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