{"id":256,"date":"2013-04-16T03:28:49","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T03:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=256"},"modified":"2013-07-18T19:56:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T19:56:52","slug":"boston-41513-and-running-in-red-riders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=256","title":{"rendered":"Boston 4\/15\/13 and Running in Red Riders"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a post all set to load earlier before I went into work, but I ran out of time.\u00a0 In light of today\u2019s events, I feel like there are a few other things I need to say instead.<\/p>\n

Wow.\u00a0 Just wow.\u00a0 Happiness is walking into work and finding a\u00a0free pair of brand new, bright blue\u00a0Nike Free 3.0\u00a0waiting for you.\u00a0 Heartbreak is having a customer walk in a few minutes later and ask if you heard about the explosion at the finish line of the biggest running event in the world, which resulted in deaths and injuries of runners and spectators.\u00a0 Tragic. Absolutely devastating.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m\u00a0grateful to report that\u00a0I have, in some form or another, heard from everyone I know that was running today when the explosion occurred at the end of the Boston Marathon.<\/p>\n

I still don\u2019t know very many of the details, but here is what I do know.\u00a0 This sucks.\u00a0 The fact that anything as glorious as the Boston Marathon and all that it stands for is now tarnished by this tragedy is absolutely horrible.\u00a0 We all know that I\u2019m a crier, and just because I was at work all afternoon\/evening, doesn\u2019t change that fact.\u00a0 Every post I read, every story I heard, all brought more tears.\u00a0 My friend Flavia posted this: And just when you think it can\u2019t get any worse\u2026Relatives of Sandy Hook Massacre victims were VIP guests at the finish line tent, where the bombing occurred.\u00a0 The theme of this year\u2019s marathon was \u201c26 Miles for 26 Victims.\u201d\u00a0 That might be the saddest thing I\u2019ve ever heard.\u00a0 Something that was meant to give hope, just re-victimized those people who have already suffered so much.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t believe any of this.\u00a0 I can\u2019t fathom what it would be like to have the experience of living my dream of crossing the finish line at the Boston Marathon, only to have that experience shattered by a bomb going off, and potentially losing a limb.\u00a0 Not being able to run again.\u00a0 Or worse, losing a loved one.<\/p>\n

I tried to be there today.\u00a0 When I went to Quebec in 2011, I went with the intention of qualifying for Boston and the possibility of being there today.\u00a0 That marathon in Quebec is the one that got cancelled courtesy of Hurricane Irene.\u00a0 Then I went to Dallas.\u00a0 I ran the race of my life and fell just short of qualifying. \u00a0That would have gotten me to Boston today. I wanted to try again last year in Chicago, but I sprained an ankle 3 weeks out and I knew my hopes were shot.\u00a0 My Smoky Mountain teammates might even remember me saying last year that this year I wanted to run Boston and then drive down to NC to run our relay 4 days later (That\u2019s right, I leave for NC on Thursday and I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll come up with a way to honor the victims of Boston at SMR).\u00a0 None of that had even occurred to me until I got this message from Jess: \u201cGlad you weren\u2019t at Boston this year!\u00a0 God works in mysterious ways!!\u201d\u00a0 Oh my goodness, yes, I was desperately trying to be there this year, but something kept standing in my way.\u00a0 Maybe its coincidence, but I believe it\u2019s something bigger.\u00a0 I always say that everything happens for a reason.\u00a0 I know my time in Boston is coming, but now I\u2019m so thankful it was not today.<\/p>\n

Here is the message I have for the person or people who did this: You have tarnished something beautiful today.\u00a0 You have grieved my heart and the hearts of my friends in the running community worldwide.\u00a0 But we are not afraid to keep running and we will not let you steal our joy.\u00a0 We will continue to do what we love and we will be united in that.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say it any better than what my friend Megan posted: It is the men and women running toward the chaos that bring hope\u2026<\/p>\n

My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this horrible tragedy today. xoxo…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On a lighter note, if you feel so inclined, here is the piece I originally planned to\u00a0post…<\/p>\n

RUNNING IN RED RIDERS<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been severely out of sorts this past week. Which explains why RRG has been uncharacteristically quiet. It’s a combination of\u00a0a hormonal imbalance, a completely crazy ridiculous schedule with a bunch of random life interferences thrown in and a series of bad workouts.\u00a0 But\u2026I\u2019m Back, Baby!\u00a0 My mojo has been missing for a while, but I found it on Saturday.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure my Smoky Mountain Relay teammates will be happy to know that, seeing as our race starts THIS Friday!!!<\/p>\n

Remember Dorothy\u2019s ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz?\u00a0 Well, here are my new ruby slippers\u2026<\/p>\n

\"RRG's<\/a>

RRG’s Ruby Slippers<\/p><\/div>\n

Red Mizuno Riders.\u00a0 Dorothy was right, there is NO place like home.\u00a0 I\u2019m ashamed to say that my first marathon was completed in a pair of cheap, crappy, worn out shoes from Famous Footwear.\u00a0 GAAAHHHH!\u00a0 Did I really just admit that?!\u00a0 It\u2019s a miracle I didn\u2019t get injured, and another miracle that I decided to do it all again. \u00a06 more times and counting.\u00a0 I treated myself to some \u201creal\u201d running shoes shortly after that first round with the Chicago marathon in 2001.\u00a0 That was my very first pair of Mizunos.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been running mostly\u00a0in Mizunos pretty much ever since, careful to replace them every six months or so, until last year, when I put myself in a pair of the Brooks Glycerin 10.\u00a0 I love my Glycerins but a couple weeks ago I went out for a run at Babler and my shins were killing me.\u00a0 My body was telling me it was time for new shoes.\u00a0 One of the great things about working at a running store is that I have easy access to trying lots of different shoes.\u00a0 And ultimately, I ended up right back where I belong, Mizunos, which just feel like\u2026home.<\/p>\n

If you read about my 20 miler last Monday, you know how awful that was.\u00a0 On Thursday when I ran 6 with Nicole at Queeny, I was\u00a0resisting the urge to\u00a0puke the entire run.\u00a0 Of course, that probably had something to do with the Chick-Fil-A I ate just an hour before. \u00a0We\u2019ll chalk that up to a lesson learned the hard way. Then, later on Thursday I went off to lead the social run and ran 4 more miles with Nick.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure which one of us was hurting more though, because at one point I felt like I was pulling him along, which doesn\u2019t\u00a0ev-errrr happen. \u00a0\u00a0I topped out for 10 on the day, but none of those miles felt particularly good.<\/p>\n

And swimming last week? Well, that was a total disaster.\u00a0 I was having so much anxiety in my life that I already felt like I couldn\u2019t catch my breath.\u00a0 Not a good state to be in when you jump in the water.\u00a0 I think I barely managed 500 meters and at one point I was so frustrated with myself I ended up at the end of the lane with my head on my arms, clinging to the side of the pool, sobbing. \u00a0Rambling Runner Girl turned into Crying Swimmer Girl.\u00a0 Or as Steve said when I told him that story, \u201cLately you are Crying Everything Girl.\u201d\u00a0 Seems that way sometimes, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

So, after a rough week of workouts and life in general, it felt so good to go out for a run Saturday morning before work and feel like I was finally getting back to being the girl that I know I am.\u00a0 I was also reflecting on the things that had gotten me down over the past week. Seeing how I got through all of that made me realize just how far I\u2019ve come over the last year.<\/p>\n

So, here\u2019s the question:\u00a0 Is it really all about the shoes?\u00a0 Well, I work in a shoe store, so the obvious answer is Yes!\u00a0 But it\u2019s also about the person wearing the shoes and what they do with what they\u2019ve got.\u00a0 The shoes aren\u2019t going to run themselves.\u00a0 There are times where you just have to put on whatever shoes you can find and get the job done, but once you learn to do that, it makes it so much better when the shoes really fit.<\/p>\n

During my run on Saturday, I was listening to the Rascal Flatts song Unstoppable.\u00a0 \u201cYou find your faith has been lost and shaken, you take back what\u2019s been taken, get on your knees and dig down deep, you can do what you think is impossible\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past several years, my faith was lost and shaken.\u00a0 By that, I primarily mean my faith in myself.\u00a0 But slowly I\u2019ve been rebuilding that.\u00a0 I am taking back what\u2019s been taken.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard, and I\u2019ve had to dig really deep, but I\u2019ve been willing to do that and I\u2019ve learned that I really can do what I used to think was impossible.<\/p>\n

While I was out for that Saturday morning run, I felt like I was sliding effortlessly across the blacktop, kind of like I was\u00a0flying, in my red Mizuno Riders and it made me think about something my friend Luke said to me a while back.\u00a0 Luke is one of my best, best, best friends from High School.\u00a0 Which means that, obviously, we\u2019ve known each other for approximately…a very\u00a0long time. \u00a0He has seen me conquer countless battles in life and he\u2019s been there through a lot of heart aches.\u00a0He was also my Homecoming date Senior year since nobody else wanted to take\u00a0the weird girl who cries all the time and only talks about running.\u00a0As things have finally started to fall into place with my life, I feel like I am finally getting my groove back and\u00a0I told Luke that I felt like I was soaring.\u00a0 His response was \u201cBabe, you\u2019ve always been soaring.\u00a0 You just didn\u2019t realize how high you could go!\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s absolutely right.\u00a0 And I think it\u2019s finally time for me\u00a0to find out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a post all set to load earlier before I went into work, but I ran out of time.\u00a0 In light of today\u2019s events, I feel like there are a few other things I need to say instead. Wow.\u00a0 Just wow.\u00a0 Happiness is walking into work and finding a\u00a0free pair of brand new, bright […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-bringthetears","category-lessonsfromrunning","category-randomthoughts","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-48","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}