Why you gotta be such a dick April 16th?

This post has been written, edited, rewritten, and then scrapped again at least three times. The tragedy in Boston is the latest in a long line of such tragedies all over the world. Such tragedies as the death of score of Iraqis on the very same day in election related violence.

I was lucky enough to not be affected personally by the bombings in Boston, but they did make me think. Not about terrorism or the cause of attacks. Not about how the perpetrators should be treated. No grand thoughts like that. They would come later. I thought about life and how fleeting it is. I thought about how people where dead for simply standing at a finish line of a marathon.

For some reason I felt compelled to do something in reaction to Boston. Maybe because it happened on April 16th. Maybe because I am maturing and I find myself reacting to tragedy more noticeably. I thought about doing something. Anything. And then I decided what. I am going to run a marathon. Not in specific memory of Boston. Such things strike me as masturbatory and pointless. I am running instead because I can. To prove I can't be intimidated by cowards. To give myself a goal.

So I'm running a marathon in 2014. Not sure where or when yet, but that's just details. I'm running a marathon not for Boston, or the 32, or anything else. I'm running for me.