I want to share portions of a piece written by Jon Marcus — Bostonian, athlete, writer — just a few hours after the blasts.
It’s nothing but a strip of yellow-painted pavement in the heart of Boston, but for me and tens of thousands of other people, it’s been the place where we’ve experienced among the most euphoric moments of our lives. Now it will forever be associated with one of the lowest….
The two explosions, seconds apart, were incongruous. It was a beautiful day—Patriots Day, a holiday in Massachusetts that commemorates the start of the American Revolution. An Ethiopian and a Kenyan had been crowned the men’s and women’s champions of the famous race. The Red Sox had won at Fenway in the ninth.
When the two loud blasts occurred, reporters traded baffled looks. Thunder? But the sky was cloudless. Then the hush was interrupted by a tense announcement: The [Copley] hotel was locked down. No one was to leave or enter.
In the lobby, there were bleeding runners—not, it turned out, hurt by the explosions, but who had been in the medical tent next door, being treated for such comparatively mundane maladies as dehydration. They’d ripped out their IVs and made space on the cots for the injured.
Soon the noise of sirens replaced what had moments before been the sound of cheers. And one of the happiest days in the Boston calendar—and the city itself—was changed forever….
For runners from around the world, the marathon is a life goal. They train not for months, but years, to meet the daunting qualifying times. Crossing that small strip of pavement is an accomplishment that’s as hard to explain as the attack that bloodied it is impossible to understand.
This time, some of the last runners to cross kept going, to the hospitals to give blood. Doctors and nurses among them volunteered to help…
There have been many similar stories, focusing on the heroism that day. The human capacity for selflessness never shines more brightly than in the immediate responses that we see in a chaotic, scary situation. The resilience and motivation to overcome senseless acts of violence will continue. Today, April 17th, there is a facebook-driven campaign Run for Boston, in which people from around the world are running and posting pictures to support the victims in Boston, showing solidarity and love. Ashley McGuire says it well: “Lelisa Benti and Rita Jeptoo won the Boston Marathon. But really no one won the Boston Marathon. Instead, men and women who had spent months, years, maybe even their lives, gearing up for this feat of sportsmanship, swerved off the path and tore off their jerseys to make tourniquets for the limbs of people who had been cheering them on. Men and women charged into the smoke to help victims with full knowledge that other bombs likely sat by sizzling…. All I could think was this: Winning is nothing without honor and virtue, without love for the race and love for mankind. Because without those things, anyone can win. A terrorist can win. But love won the Boston Marathon. The heroes who rushed to combat hate with love won the Boston Marathon.”