Boston Girl!

I know, maybe this seems a little late, but I've been meaning to post about this as I gather my own thoughts and feelings about the bombings at the Boston Marathon a couple weeks ago. Having spent 3 years living in Massachusetts when I was little, 7 in Maine, and a lot of trips to Mass to visit my grandparents when we lived in WV and NJ, this hit me a lot closer to home than it might have for someone from, say, North Dakota. Oh, and a number of college friends are living in the Boston area, one of whom works in a building just a few hundred yards from the explosions.
I heard/saw a few people (non-New Englanders) claim that the bombing wasn't such a big deal, especially since only 3 people died. Well, THANK GOD only 3 people died! Over 200 were injured though, and many of them are going through the painful process of amputation, prosthetics, phantom pain, learning to get stared at, and trying to deal with the psychological trauma of the event.
Also, most of the US doesn't know about Patriot's Day. They think it's that new holiday that we celebrate on 9/11 now. No, Patriot's Day goes back to the midnight ride of Paul Revere and the birth pangs of the USA. It is celebrated on the 3rd Monday of April ONLY in Massachusetts and Maine, since Maine used to be part of Massachusetts.

Patriot's Day is when the Red Sox play an 11am game and as everyone now knows, it's Marathon Day. The Boston Marathon is the oldest marathon in the US and has become very prestigious around the world. Whether the T brothers realized it or not, in a way, they made an international attack.
But, why in Boston? I don't know! I don't get it. Boston has always been my favorite city. I used to wonder why it was never listed with New York, Chicago, and LA. It's smaller, and it's just about as old and historic as you can get. But, it is pretty much the capital of all New England (and don't you dare even try to think New York could EVER be considered part of New England). It's a big sports town, which makes it a lot of fun. I went to a Sox game in Boston a year ago April and had a blast talking about the Sox with random people my former Sunday School teacher and I met on the T. As we witnessed after the explosions, a ton of people ran towards the danger in order to help others. Strangers. It didn't even matter if they were "from away" or not.
T Brothers 1 and 2 were hoping to go to New York and set of some more bombs in Times Square. And then, the bit came out that they had originally planned on setting off their bombs on July 4th and just moved it up to Patriot's Day since it didn't take them as long as they expected to make their bombs. SICK-OS!! Thank God they were impatient rats! I'm curious to see what else they can drag out of T Brother 2. He's got to be mentally sick or have some real hate issues gripping his heart.
So, my points in all this are: Boston is a great city; the marathon explosions were truly a big deal; thanks be to God for his grace in that relatively/proportionately few people were hurt and killed and that the attacks didn't take place on Independence Day.

So what? Well, this has also hit me close because I love to run. Ever since my brother Zach did a marathon last year (and finished with a time that left him qualified for the Boston!), I've told myself that if he can do it, I can do it! So, I'm setting my sights on Boston. 2015 or 2016.
This past Saturday I got some pre-race jitters for the 10k I ran on Sunday. While I was trying to fall back asleep at 2am, I remembered how so many people have been running in honor of Boston. I wished I had a Red Sox hat that was made of breathable material, or a shirt or something. I thought about just writing "Boston Strong" on my arms in permanent marker, but since I was going to church later that morning I decided against it. I'll come up with something for my next race though: my first half marathon ever, 7/7/2013.
Let's remember to keep on praying for the victims of these attacks and those of Sandy Hook, Aurora, Columbine, Paducah, 9/11, etc. And as much as T Brother 2 deserves to burn in hell, so do I. May he come to know God's saving grace as well!