April
20, 2020
Greetings from
the village,
I have written
in this space before about the Boston Marathon. In the half dozen trips to that
starting line I have shared some images, some victories, and challenges. I
fully expected that this morning I would be adding to that collage.
This morning I
would be pinning on a race number and crowding onto the T and making my way to
a bus, and eventually to Hopkinton to wait to be released to make the run back
to Boston. It would be a morning of traditions
and customs and a few obsessions.
Those words
are going to wait for another morning.
No Boston Marathon today. No blue
and gold, no crowded start, no mobs of roaring spectators lining the road. No burning quads or Wellesley Girls, or
Heartbreak Hill or Fenway Park. No ‘Right
on Hereford, Left on Boyleston’.
Into that void
something else has grown. Even as I sit
here in the dark dawn, I can feel it surging.
Most of you know that when the marathon was cancelled, I decided not to
give up on my plans to run it. Just move
the start and finish line. With help, I
created VirBos20.
One of the
most powerful experiences in the Boston Marathon is the Athlete’s Village. It
is where the runners are staged just before the race, a field behind a school
that turns into a reunion of spirit. Runners
from all over the world connect here, sharing stories, hugging, signing each
other’s race numbers, helping each other, calming one another. Giving each other courage.
Anyone who has
been to a large marathon will describe something similar, but I can tell you
this is different. I have run Chicago
and New York and Miami and Philadelphia and Detroit and dozens of other
marathons, and there is something magic in the grass behind Hopkinton High
School.
Yesterday I
ran a few miles to burn off the jitters and give my legs something to consider,
since they have been on hiatus during the madness of the taper. I was only a mile in when I realized that I
was carrying the Athlete’s Village with me.
Marathoning is
not a team sport, but it is a collective experience. Once you drop back from the elite runners
there forms a camaraderie that would inspire the most steadfast cynic. It is a unique intimacy, runners focused on their
form and pace and goals, and somehow in the shared space of the 26.2 miles they
form bonds with the person next to them.
It is more than just being social; there is fellowship, sometimes
lasting moments, sometimes hours, that makes the difference.
Add to that,
the connection with the people lining the course, and you create a dynamic hard
to replicate in other settings. People standing
for hours at the curb as a sea of strangers flow by, cheering and loving them and
encouraging them. The exchange, however
brief, is unlike any other in sports.
In the Boston
Marathon last year, late in the run, I had to pull to the edge of the road to
stretch a cramping calf. I was gasping
for air, trembling with fatigue, and afraid my legs would not carry me the last
few miles. I noticed a man standing with
his friends, watching me, silent. He saw
me look up and gave me a little nod, knowing somehow not to say anything. For some reason I said “What’s been the best
part of your day today?” He smiled and
said “Seeing you.”
The moment I
decided to run the virtual Boston Marathon, here, I knew it was the right thing
for me. What I did not expect was that
it was connecting me to the Village experience, and the kinship of the run,
that I treasure. In the weeks since that
decision it has made my life more positive, and I can see now it has rippled
out to matter to the people around me.
Over the
weekend, a few hundred runners, scattered across the globe, stepped up to an
imaginary starting line, and with no fanfare, no press, no adoring crowds, set
off to run a marathon. Our bond is made
up of the effort and dedication to running 26.2, but more important, to making
the best of the day, with the best we have in us. Regardless of what circumstances we are
given.
Even more
meaningful to me is what has swirled around me as I made plans to run this
morning. Friends and family, as well as strangers who join the clan, have
committed to walk or run or ride this morning in the spirit of the marathon.
From all over the country, they are forming the Village with me.
There are
people coming out to cheer me on the road today, forming a new bond with the
Village. They will give me their smile
and their courage and love and armed with that I will run and not grow weary.
I decided to
make more of the day than just this run, to take back the words ‘social distance’
and make them something positive and powerful.
I am running my Distance for an important Social cause, to raise money
for Carriage Town Ministries, who do incredible things to help people who are
homeless. The response has been incredible. The Village surged around the purpose with a
fiery passion.
We have taken
a broken situation and made more of it, and it will matter to us and many
others, and not just for today. My
purpose in telling you this is not to shine the light on my experience but to
bring possibility to yours. Whatever disruptions
come your way, you will always have the chance to choose what your response
is. Make the best of your day with the
best you have in you
“I believe that
God made me for a purpose. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his
pleasure.” Eric Liddel, Chariots of Fire.
Hope
this finds you lacing up to go,
David
If
you would like to give to support Carriage Town Ministries and help the
homeless in Flint Michigan, you can give here at my Gofundme page:
Copyright
© 2020 David Smith
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