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From Hopkinton to Boston more than a half a million people line the streets the third Monday in April, beginning their holiday by cheering the never-ending stream of runners that pass by.
The women of Wellesley College know their place at the halfway mark. Their youthful enthusiasm provides the runners some mental fuel to make it to Boylston Street and the finish line at Copley Square that’s still 13-miles away.
The bars and restaurants are crowded with people, most glued to this storied race pictured on the flat screens. The city is buzzing. Everyone is happy in Beantown. It’s Patriots Day, the date designated for the oldest and most-fabled 26.2-mile footrace in the world, the Boston Marathon.
For one day at least, everyone’s a runner on Patriots Day. Everyone is celebrating on one of the most-cherished holidays in Massachusetts. It simply doesn’t get any better.
But at the 117th edition of the historic race on Monday, the cheers and the happiness turned to tears and sorrow at 2:42 p.m., shortly after the digital clock at the finish hit four hours and the swarm of runners coming down Boylston was beginning to thin. The tears weren’t over the pain of running a 26-mile race. It was over the blood that was shed from the victims of a cowardly act of barbarism that claimed three lives and more than 200 injuries, some critical, from the simultaneous explosions of two bombs that were situated the final quarter-mile stretch.
It’s a different world now. In times of conflict, words are seldom used. Instead, a few misguided individuals feel the way to make a point is from gunshots and bomb explosions with total disregard for the human beings they are hurting.
Breigh Souliere, a standout hurdler for Cumberland High in R.I., was at Boston. She was near the finish line along with several of her teammates and head coach Vanessa Molloy.
They were a few of the lucky ones, leaving the area of the initial explosion just five minutes earlier.
“We were standing right where the first explosion went off,” Souliere said. “We had to use the bathroom and started to walk back and then my mom was trying to call me and all you could hear was people screaming and sirens going off. We didn’t know what was going on and then we saw the sky and it was all smoky. I finally got connection with my cell phone and my mom told me that two explosions just went off and to get somewhere safe.”
“It was just chaotic,” she added. “No one knew what to do.”
The victims of this terrible event should never be forgotten. That is the primary importance on this day. Our prayers should go out to the lives that were lost, to those that were injured and to those that have been damaged in some way by this hideous crime. We also must not forget all those that helped the wounded - the medical personnel, the law enforcement, the fire officials and the countless other people that heroically came to assist.
On this particular Patriots Day, the race is secondary. Not that the respective victories of Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa and Kenya’s Rita Jeptoo should be ignored or the accomplishment of the other 20,000-plus runners that made their way through the eight cities and towns of Massachusetts en route to their final destination at Copley Square.
This date in history will forever be etched in our minds each and every year on Patriots Day. It will never be the same. Security will be increased and there will always be that thought of will it happen again? Will another demented soul put a scar on this coveted race?
Boston will survive, though.
The Boston Marathon is a moving melting pot, bringing everyone together from all parts of the world. Everyone has the same common goal of making it from Point A to Point B of this grueling 26-mile race. Runners are resilient people and very little stands in their way.
Unfortunately, it will never be the same Boston we are accustomed to, but it will endure and it will survive. The running community is a powerful force. Boston will survive just like the brave and proud people of New York City did more than a decade ago when they had to overcome an even more devastating tragedy as the result of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Remember, everyone is a runner on Patriots Day.