"If you’re trying to defeat the human spirit, marathon
runners are the wrong group to target."
These words, from Don Kern (a Michigan race
director) which David Willey (Editor-in-Chief) quoted in the Editor’s
Letter, are ingrained in my mind as I read thru the July
2013 edition of the RUNNER’S WORLD.
It is a special
issue on the Boston Bombings which happened on that fateful day of 4.15.13. I
browsed thru it and couldn’t help but focused on the first-hand accounts of the
marathon runners who in an instant turned into real-life heroes as they
provided aid to the blast victims, many fellow runners. Truly, the wrong group to cow into submission
and fear.
Noted with
interest as well, on a personal level, is the story at pages 28-30 by Nick
Weldon. It talks about two tribute runs
– Boston Strong and Unity Run which were participated in by thousands of
runners all over the globe, including here in the Philippines. As far as I know, the local tribute runs were
the ones in Muntinlupa (http://bicolanopenguin.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-strong-muntinlupa-run-to-remember.html) and Naga (http://bicolanopenguin.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-strong-naga-humabol.html), and the
Bicolano Penguin had something to do
with both. Admittedly, our number of runners were quite minute but these were endeavors of
ours that help us to be more human and at the same time standing up for
courage.
As Susan Sared,
a Professor of Sociology at Suffolk University, points out – "Running has a particular symbolic
value. It’s running toward not running
away." 
2 comments:
Macky,
Appreciate the blog post, and glad you enjoyed the issue and article. Did you see the slideshow? http://www.runnersworld.com/photos/united-we-run
Take care,
Nick Weldon
Hi Nick,
Thank you very much for this update. My son Marcel will be very happy to know about this. I am sure he will have the link featured in his facebook as well. hahahaha........As a father, I am beaming with pride. And speaking of the run, me and my running buddies are already talking about an anniversary run come April next year. It will be fun. At the same time, a chance to show solidarity with the Boston Marathon. Again, many thanks to you, Renee and your magazine.
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