There I was, laying half in the mud and half out. The sky was particularly blue. The river was high, but not too high. It had been at some point, that was abundantly clear at this moment. It sounded nice though, gushing healthily along the bank and over the rocks. It was a nice day, such a nice day. The freewheel was ticking forlornly on the other side of the trail. This ride certainly didn't turn out the way I had hoped.
Time to get up. We have to get up.
The day before, something terrible had happened back home. Something that was supposed to be nothing more than a celebration of the human spirit was twisted into something evil, terror. I can't go into the why, I don't think anyone will ever be able to. Nothing can explain such a gratuitous act of cowardice.
Like so many, the attack left me reeling. Those of us who participate in endurance sports, whether we cycle or run, are a community. We all deal with the same struggles and we all, basically, have the same goals. We want to finish.
Many of the athletes were denied that chance on Monday, many have a long road of recovery ahead if they want to run again. Family, friends, passersby, and citizens of Boston were wounded or killed. Lives have been destroyed. A city is changed forever. Our great country has yet another tragedy to recover from.
But, there's one thing I know. This catastrophe will not defeat those 2013 Boston Marathon athletes and it will galvanize the running community, the endurance community in fact, to get up and keep going. I know this because many of those runners on Monday who were able to finish kept running, right to the hospitals to donate their blood. Blood from bodies that were exhausted, damaged, and pushed to their limits; bodies that needed their blood. But, those incredible athletes gave it up to help others without hesitation. That right there tells you something. I also know a lot of runners. In fact, I know more runners than non-runners. One of those runners qualified for this year's Boston. An injury kept him from going. Thank God. But, he's already declared that he'll do whatever it takes to come back from that injury so he can be there next year. He won't be the only one, that is for sure. In fact, I think we're going to see something remarkable over the next year. Something tells me that running, while already a popular sport in the United States, is going to take off. This tragedy will end up serving a purpose, it will inspire. Guaranteed.
I took off on my bike Tuesday morning because I felt helpless. A community that I care about, a community that so many of my loved ones belong to was attacked and was hurting. It still is. That bike ride was all I could do. It seemed lame at the time to pedal east for 13.1 miles and then come back. But, it's all I had. It didn't turn out the way I had hoped. Two miles from the end I was covered in dirt and a good amount of blood after falling victim to a slippery puddle of mud left over from the last flooding.
It turns out it wasn't the ride, it was getting back up, cleaning off the blood, bandaging the wounds, getting back on the bike, and pedaling home that mattered on Tuesday. That is what I had to do. It is my hope and belief that the legacy of Monday's tragedy will be the motivation for us all, athletes or not, to get up and keep going.
It's the very least we can do.
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