Heavy Hearts Tonight

Picture taken by CBS

“So many tears yet to be caught, so many prayers yet to be answered” -Unknown

Let me begin by informing you that all Speedster members and their families have been accounted for.  Their accomplishments have been unfortunately over shadowed by the tragedy that struck our beloved sport of running.  I was sitting in a crowded cafeteria on West Chester’s Campus, with my MacBook open, and Facebook on the screen.  I wasn’t really paying the Mac any mind, as I was mentally involved with one of my textbooks in preparation of my last class of the day.  That was until I looked up briefly and noticed Facebook was buzzing with excitement.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Runners were claiming that there were explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  At first I didn’t believe it, I thought how could this be, I just had looked up all my runners thirty minutes ago.  Explosions couldn’t be accurate... could it?  I soon received a chill down my spine, eerily similar to the one I felt when the World Trade Center was struck by the first plane.  I quickly packed up my stuff and began calling, texting, emailing frantically.  I needed to know that people I care for were safe.

Between my attempts at locating those that ran Boston today, I was receiving calls, texts, and emails from other concerned members about the whereabouts of their friends and fellow runners, and from my none running friends confirming that Allyson and I were not at Boston this year.   It was hectic for a good thirty minutes.  I finally had confirmation that everyone we knew was okay, but others were severely injured.  Those people along with those that did survive will be in my prayers tonight. 

A good friend of mine, a mother of three was at the race today to support her husband with their oldest.  She posted on Facebook that she wants so badly to keep her entire family home tomorrow.  A friend of hers responded simply “Then they win…” This is so true.  We cannot allow crazed monsters to hold us at bay.  We must go on, even if this is extremely hard.  We must show our strengths when we’re actually feeling weak.  Tomorrow we will still have our speed workout; we will just be running with heavy hearts.

Much Love,

CT