Tom and I signed up to be support crew for L Street Running Club for today's water stop. So much changed since last 4/15/13 and we rejoined L Street and have reconnected with the running community. While the bombs may have shattered glass and caused bodily harm and even death, the fabric of the running community has gotten stronger and tougher.
On Friday evening, we went to Target and got provisions relishing choosing what we thought the runners would enjoy. I even asked for requests on Twitter and Facebook. One of the members said, "no requests - just seeing your smile will be enough." Another said, "swedish fish please." Our daughter joined us on the shopping expedition and reminded us of how important having salt was on our long runs so we added pretzels to our water stop.
Often times, people make fun of me for being early, but today it really paid off. There was a group of runners that had left early for their long run and arrived 5 minutes after we had set up our water stop. They were so grateful that we were out there early. We filled bowls with pretzels, cookies, skittles and swedish fish and poured cups of water and gatorade.
There was a slow stream of runners and then a whole entourage of L Street runners heading for the water stop. I saw people I hadn't seen in awhile and met people who I had connected with on Facebook and Twitter. There was one member of L Street who remembered when I spoke at the Club in two pre marathon meetings. My favorite time was on April 15, 2011 when the then club President, Mac, told me he didn't need me to speak but at the last minute realized that the keynote speaker was going to be late. You can see my talk on my You Tube Channel.
Kevin fist pumped me and asked me if I was still writing. He told me he loves to hear me speak and told me how much I inspire him.
When the water stop got busy, we splashed and sloshed gatorade and water as we hurried to fill cups. Every member expressed gratitude for our being out there. We all expressed gratitude for the good weather! Tom and I told the runners that they were doing the hard part - running the miles to train for Boston 2014 but they said that doing the water stop also took a lot of work and effort.
There were hugs, smiles, pain and struggle. Because of my bad run last week, I was able to provide runners with a lot of support and encouragement reminding them that there is always a good run waiting after a bad run. There were shared moments of Boston 2013 for runners who didn't finish but are fiercely determined to get to the finish line this year. There was a sense of camaraderie and oneness and a palpable feeling of being Boston Strong.
When one of the members of L Street asked me if I were running Boston this year, I told him I don't have another marathon in me. He said, "When you say you don't have another marathon in you, it means you have at least one more."
I don't know about that but I do know that I felt honored, proud and contented to be a part of the #supportcrew for my L Street Running Club and look forward to a repeat on March 9th as the runners go from Hopkinton to Boston College on their 22 miler!
No comments:
Post a Comment