The Boston Marathon is being run this morning, a year after the terrible attack that killed three people and injured hundreds of others.
I crossed that finish line back in 2007. Its hard to explain to people who haven’t been there, but it is a transformative moment, that run through Boston, even without the commemoration. I didn’t understand that before I went seven years ago. I thought it was just another race.
It is electric. After you get through the four Newton Hills and past Boston College, you’re totally spent physically. The glycogen is gone and your brain is swimming in this chemical soup of pain — and the crowd is stunning. They’re beaming at you, like the Twin Cities marathon crowd a hundred fold. They’re standing in rank after rank on the course and in places you can hear the roar even before you get there.
I imagine it must be what its like at the Olympics or the Super Bowl.
The great thing about Boston is that its the one sporting event like that that you can actually decide to participate in. You don’t have to get picked in the draft or have a miraculous fastball. You can set your mind to it, do the training, run a qualifying race and then step up to the starting line of one of the most famous athletic events in history.
There’s nothing like it.
Tim Nelson 