Race Shirts for Boston

Today has been a rough day. Today was the 117th running of the Boston Marathon where it seems like me and every other person acquainted with the fitness online world had IRL and online friends competing. What was a happy day of text updates from the race and online messages quickly turned into a series of horrible video and images from the finish line. Some terrorists set bombs that detonated injuring at least 100 and killing at least two. I write terrorists because I doubt one person did all this but I am holding back any judgment on who did this until there is evidence… remember even domestic people who commit these kinds of acts are considered terrorists.

Right now I am not gonna hide the fact that I am angry. I am angry, I am sad, I have a heavy heart for what happened and for all those affected. I am upset the running community has had to endure this kind of violence. We can be a close-knit group of people ranging from runners, spectators, volunteers, sponsors and support workers. Anyone who has run or been to a race knows this.

Tomorrow I plan to show my solidarity with the people affected by today’s tragedy in Boston by wearing a race shirt. It is not my idea. I saw it floated around three times on Facebook in public and private groups before I started posting it myself.

The idea is simple – wear any race shirt you may have. If you do not have a race shirt or if you are concerned about wearing one because you work with kids who may have questions then wear something that means something to you as an active person. Wear a heart rate monitor, favorite workout shirt, wrist bands, etc.

The Boston Athletic Association was founded by running enthusiasts so tomorrow the idea is to show your enthusiasm for how you move to stand strong with the people of this great tradition.

You can also write messages on your shirt if you wish. I have not seen any unifying themes to write. Just keep it real and from your heart to show how we stand with our larger community.

**I have also seen the folks at RunChat suggest you wear yellow and blue if you have a job or other commitment you need to be dressed in a certain way for. Yellow and blue are the Boston Marathon colors.

**