Today marked the end of a very long week filled with tragedy and heartache. The second suspect of the Boston Marathon bombings was captured thanks to the hard work of many police officers, FBI agents and even private citizens.
I feel I have a unique perspective on this because I am both a runner and paramedic. When I heard of the events on Monday I was driving around running errands and the talk show I was listening to made a small comment on an explosion in Boston then went on to other topics. About 10 minutes later they came back to the bombing and said it sounds like it is more serious than they had previously thought. I started texting my wife because we have a friend that was running the marathon. She quickly came back with "Jodi is OK." Wow, that's a relief. Wait, no, more reports are coming in about multiple deaths and dozens of injured people. What is going on?
I got home and starting streaming the news and realized that this was a huge event and it took place right at the finish line of the mecca of amateur distance running. The Boston Marathon is what many distance runners dream of running because it is so elite. The qualifying times are no joke and even if you do make those, you may still not get in. I have yet to complete a full marathon but that doesn't stop me from wanting to one day qualify for Boston.
As I watched the news I realize what is taking place even though it only looks like a hoard of people in vests running around. The Incident Command System is a universal way for Mass Casualty Incidents to be run in the US. I have taken so many classes on how these operate that my brain hurts just from thinking about it. They have to think of everything needed for an event from medical supplies and personnel to food and water. Even traffic control, lights, and radios for communication. And oh by the way, this is a crime scene so be careful. From what I saw, the MCI quickly turned into a well oiled machine. The authorities in Boston did a great job of evacuating all of the patients to area hospitals and minimizing the loss of life.
So why would someone attack an event like this? Is it for political reasons? Just a plain sociopath? I would imagine that we will find out the answer to this soon. What I would like to point out is that the people of our little running community are the worst people to attack. We don't back down from a fight because it may be painful. HA are you kidding? 26.2 miles is pretty painful (so I hear) but people still run marathons all the time. Also, we have a great sense of camaraderie. If you attack one of us you attack us all. We respond immediately with charity runs to raise money for the victims. We run passed the finish line and keep running to the hospital to donate blood. And I think the most inspirational are the ones that ran back to the explosion sites to get people out and to the hospitals.
I am tearing up just thinking about all of the wonderful souls that were there that day to help someone they have never met before just because it was the right thing to do.
Tomorrow as I run my 16 mile training run I will #Run3rd for all of the people involved in the Boston Marathon including the injured and the good samaritans.
