'Run for Boston' helps runners everywhere cope with marathon horror (+video)

Runners across the US ? and the world ? have responded to the Boston Marathon bombings with a determination to 'keep on running' to show solidarity with Boston and the victims.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / April 17, 2013

John Tackett of Atlanta (l.) weeps during an organized moment of silence and memorial run to show solidarity with victims of the Boston Marathon bombing Tuesday in Atlanta.

David Goldman/AP

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A day after twin bombs hit the Boston Marathon, Atlanta runners turned out by the hundreds for a vigil and a ?silent mile? run in support of Boston, the bombs' victims, and as an act of solidarity among runners nationwide.

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As police search for clues and suspects Wednesday, an outpouring of support continues not only in Boston, but across the US, with runners and athletes, especially, finding unique ways to celebrate and support America's most revered marathon and its host city.

The events are one small way to live the sentiment, ?Keep On Running, Boston,? as the T-shirt says. But for many participants, the runs are also a way to process, as a community, how an act of violence could strike a race that has come to epitomize normal people doing extraordinary feats ? an act of essential solitude often undertaken on behalf of charity or in the memory of others.

These runs for Boston are ?a way of re-creating the past so that you can transform it from senselessness to sensibility, creating a new path that makes sense and creating this thing together,? says Michael Katovich, a sociologist at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

Such outpourings of grief and mourning are not unusual in the wake of national tragedies in a country built on faith and perseverance. But the fact that the bomber hit a sporting event known for community-building and charity work struck a particularly jarring chord, and differentiated the reaction from other recent tragedies, including the Newtown school massacre, where primarily outsiders came to create massive teddy bear memorials.

?The Boston Marathon is the holy of holies for runners, and now they?re messing with the thing that everybody loves, and anybody who has an appreciation for what the Boston Marathon stands for takes this personally,? says Chris Field, a College Station, Texas, marathon race director and creator of the ?Run for Boston? Facebook project. ?Runners are doing what runners do, and that is putting our shoes on and getting back out there, even when we get knocked down.?

?Run for Boston? expects to hold hundreds of runs across the US and even in Banff, Canada, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The runs are expected to draw anywhere from dozens to handfuls of runners, including one runner in Mountain View, Calif., who vowed to give ?an extra hard kick for the last 1.4 miles in remembrance.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/8TqD7uakBWM/Run-for-Boston-helps-runners-everywhere-cope-with-marathon-horror-video

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