We Run As One

This past Sunday I participated in my first ever half-marathon. In all of the racing packets there was a blue arm band with yellow writing that said,

"We Run As One - Boston 2013". 

We were asked to wear it at the start of our race and when asked, raise the banded arm as we observed 26 seconds of silence for the events that took place at the Boston Marathon this year.  So as all 7000 + runners stood behind the starting line we all raised our arms to the sky and silenced our mouths for those 26 seconds.  While I stood there I couldn't help but let tears tumble down my face.  I thought about what the race stood for.

"The legend states that Pheidippides, a greek messenger, was sent running from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon (in which he had just fought).  It is said that he ran the entire distance (we observe the spirit of the story with a 26.2 mile race) without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming, "We wοn", before collapsing and dying.^{"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon)}

The message that I take from the story is to run the race, deliver the message, and fight the good fight.  So in those moments of silence before our race I felt we were doing just that.  We were delivering the message loud and clear, "Violence will never destroy our spirit".  In that moment I became overwhelmingly proud to be a part of this community of people called runners.