Boston Bomber

Last year my life was affected in a way that I could not imagine would ever happen.  And although I'm pretty rational and nothing physically happened to me, I still think about that day and what could have been.  I am a runner, and I've run 45 marathons and soon (God willing) to be 46 in April and countless other races - half marathons, 10Ks, 5Ks, 15Ks, 10 milers - you name it.  I've run pretty consistently for over 30 years and it is a part of me.  I used to be "fast" back in the day but I can still hold my own in my age group.  Running defines me to some extent.  In fact, the title of this blog is taken from a joke that I have with my own daughter.  When we travel to a place where I have run a race, I will say to her, "Mom ran here", and it has become our own little inside laugh and bond over the years.  However, I was not prepared for the events of last April 15th.

You see today, I found out that the Boston Marathon Bomber is to be tried and if found guilty, the prosecutors will press for the death penalty.  I have very mixed emotions regarding this.  I was there, at mile 26, when the 2nd bomb went off.  I had heard the first, but kept going, but I saw the 2nd explosion.  I remember noise and fire and thinking that someone on the sidewalk got hurt.  I remember people running back at me and police telling us to get off the road.  I caught a singed twenty dollar bill that flew at me in the whirlwind,  and I remember hiding in a parking garage and using a strangers phone to check in with my parents (who live around mile 12) and my daughter whom I had just stopped to hug at mile 24.5.

I'm a rational being - an engineer by trade and not a super emotional person.  But I still think of the what ifs from that day?  What if I had been in better shape and run faster? What if I hadn't stopped? What if I hadn't old my daughter and her friends to go the the BU area rather than the finish? What if?

The death penalty is a tricky thing.  It is one thing to get the monster off the earth and another to think he may be martyred because of it.  He is guilty, there is no doubt in my mind.  Heck, my friend's son has a video of him walking away from the site.  And I would love to see him rot in prison with his legs amputated so that he has to learn to live the way many of his victims do.  But I also don't think that any good taxpayer should have to pay for him to rot there.  For him to get an education or for him to file a billion appeals to get an "out of jail free card" on some technicality.  We live in a great country.  One that allows us to express such thoughts and to remain innocent until proven without a doubt that you are guilty.  But it is this same country that he and his brother wished to denigrate and bring down.

I'll stop for now as I feel much better.  After all, it is time for me to go "run there".