Marathon Musings

I would be remiss in my attempt to get back into blogging and running without mentioning the Boston Marathon. Yesterday was Marathon Monday (Patriot’s Day, if we’re being technical), and for me personally it was very bittersweet; it was the first marathon in five years that I wasn’t in the city. I didn’t feel the excitement in the air or applaud any runners on their amazing achievement. I didn’t see the city come together in a way that only the marathon can bring, especially in the years since the bombings.

The fact that the bombings were three years ago is still so surreal. It’s one of those moments where I’ll always remember where I was when I heard. I wasn’t working in the city at the time, but I had just come from my gym, literally blocks away from the finish line. Brent called me, unaware that I had ventured into the city that day. As soon as I got home, I turned on the news and the rest is actual history. 

I was following along all the race updates yesterday at work and I read that Mark Wahlberg was filming at the finish line, before the marathon started, for the movie about the bombings. I didn’t know they were doing a movie, but it makes sense; the way everything unfolded and how that little asshole was caught is right out of a Hollywood script.

I wanted to get out for a run yesterday, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Today was perfect running weather when I got out of work and I was excited about getting out there. I figured all the articles I read on the incredibly inspiring runners, some of who lost limbs or loved ones in the bombings, would motivate me on my measly three miler around the neighborhood. There’s nothing like pumping yourself up for something that turns out to be an epic fail; if Merriam-Webster had “Brigid Charest’s attempt at a run on Tuesday, April 19, 2016” as the definition for that phrase, it wouldn’t be inaccurate.

I never found my stride, I couldn’t catch my breath, I caught a cramp that just wouldn’t go away; nothing about this run worked. With my first run of the week such a disaster, I can only hope it’s all uphill from here. Since I already have one run and one blog post on the books for the week, I'm calling it a success.