My Beloved Boston Marathon

One of my greatest, greatest childhood memories was watching the Boston Marathon. 

When I was little and watching all of those people racing by, it never crossed my mind that I'd actually be one of them some day. I was simply happy as a clam handing out oranges and water. My sisters and I would compete to see how many runners would take ours. I distinctly remember one man dodging other runners to come to the sideline and take a cup of water from me. He smiled at me and said, "Thank you, Peaches!" I beamed back, giddy with excitement. It was enough to have a marathon runner take my cup, but to be verbally acknowledged!! It likely took all his breath to muster those three words on Heartbreak Hill. He wanted me to feel even more special than I already did, and he succeeded. Perhaps he knew he was planting a seed. I repaid the favor twenty years later right around that same spot to a little girl. Because that's what this race is about. It's an amalgamation of lots and lots and lots of wonderful things.

The Boston Marathon is about people realizing lifelong dreams; it's about total pride - in yourself or your friend or spouse or mom or dad or sister or brother or kid or grandmother or uncle or next door neighbor or the eighty-year-old man you don't know but you know just by looking at him he will finish the race no matter how long it takes; it's about everyone knowing who "the father pushing his son in a wheelchair" is, and digesting that infectious smile on the son's face; it's not just about donating money, but donating your sweat and determination to inspire others to give too; it's about patriotism and freedom. It is thousands upon thousands of people of all shapes and sizes and ages and colors coming together as one. It gives anyone who participates, in any way they want to or can, a natural high so seldom achieved. It is the pinnacle of health: physical, emotional and spiritual. 

So I have to believe, because to feel any other way would be just too painful to bear, that something with a soul as grand as the Boston Marathon will not ever be destroyed. May it please be so.