Tuesday 16 April 2013

Give love: Boston Marathon and Why I Run

I read a lot of running blogs.

Sometimes I even pretend this blog is a running blog (...is it? I still can't tell.).

So, waking up to news about the Boston Marathon was heart-breaking. I emailed my sister to make sure our friend in Boston was safe. He had been cheering at the finish line and thankfully left 2:30 into the race. I am so, so, so grateful that he is safe.

Then, I get this message:


In my anger and disgust, I said some very non-yogi non-ahimsa things in our chat ("ahimsa" means non-harming, so not + "non-harming"= harming. Very, very harming). It was probably good that I wasn't on that train, because I doubt I would have held my tongue.

Luckily, Facebook was there to buoy me.

My hat off to you, random stranger on Facebook who is extremely eloquent and smart!

There's no point in being angry at some random stranger my boyfriend overheard on his way to work. In the words of the Facebook quote above, "The good outnumber you, you insensitive idiot on the train, and we always will."

The fact that this tragedy took place at a marathon hits so close to home. No, I've never run one--heck I've only run one race! Yet I still count myself as a runner, and one of those "white blood cells" that would flock to help. I am proud to be a runner.

"Running hard only because I'm being chased is not good enough. I need to run hard because I can, because I should. Not all the time, of course, but often enough that I don't forget what it feels like to burn. I can apply the same concept intellectually, spiritually, emotionally...where ordinary times of life are the workroom, the classroom, the track. We need to practice our work here. We need to study, learn, run the drills over and over again so that when the moment of crisis comes (and it always does), we do what needs to be done automatically. In the moment of crisis it's too late to train."

 -from Kristin Armstrong's Mile Markers: The 26.2 Most Important Reason Why Women Run


Anyway, I'll leave you with this song by MC Yogi, lip-dubbed by the Queen Street Yoga community.


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