Tuesday, April 26, 2011

One Misty Moisty Morning

Sometimes runners are surprised by what they find when they go out for a run. Today was one of those days.

It was supposed to be a r3/w3 morning running through a cloud, but then Johnny Kelley stopped me. I love running past this tribute to a Boston and running legend. In the spring as things begin to flower around it, it's even more of a tribute to the man and all he represents.

It's not unusual for people to use the statue as a place to stash necessities for long runs: bottles of sports drinks, snacks and such; but also people leave tributes behind as well. Silent, personal testimonies laying bare their soul to perfect strangers that may or may not notice.

This morning was such a morning where there were three testaments of Johnny's meaning in this world. The first was someone hung their BAA medals from the 114th running of the Boston Marathon (last year's 2o1o marathon) on Johnny.











The second was a tribute to a fallen loved one. His picture posted to the tree by the statue with flowers that had faded with the photo simply labeled with a name and his dates.













The third was an empty pair of running shoes next to the base of the statue:













So today I ran 2.5 miles in a fog with 3 minute intervals - 3 minutes running, 3 minutes walking - with one pause in the middle to be surprised, and touched, with a clear vision of why I do this.

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