Whoever it was who woke up yesterday and thought "I know, I'll blow up Boston" really picked on the wrong people, didn't they? The scenes of so many people coming together to help other humans in their hour of need were heartwarming in spite of the circumstances - runners donating blood and people opening their homes to give hospitality.
I ummed and aahed about whether to write on this unsavoury topic, partly because it's just such a horrible thing, and partly because it isn't directly about cycling. However, what happened in Boston yesterday affects all sports men and women and, in particular, those who are "participators", those who are never going to be Mo Farah or Paula Radcliffe, Chris Hoy or Laura Trott, the people who make mass participation events the wonderful days they are, people who raise millions of pounds for good causes each year. People like you and me. The timing of the blasts to go off several hours into the race, just as the keen (but never going to be elite) runners were coming through the finish line shows that they were intended to cause the maximum damage possible.
Although there are people from all walks of life who are into all sorts of different sports, runners strike me, on the whole, as a pretty benign bunch (much more so than cyclists). Yes, they are competitive, they talk a good talk when they want to, but they don't seem to be that aggressive among themselves - I speak from experience having dabbled in running for many years before taking up cycling. There are some mass participation races that have a political (or politically motivated) cause at the heart of them, but the majority of the major events are great levellers, in terms of politics, race, religion, gender, age, wealth and background - to attack such an event is to attack community itself, to attack the idea of human unity, a coming together in the name of sport and overcoming personal challenges, and often raising money and awareness for a spectrum of different worthy causes.
When a terrorist performs some act of terror at a political or religious building or event linked to their cause, it is not right. It is still horrific and wrong. However, I can at least see their motivation for doing it - attacking the direct cause of their beef with the world. Attacking innocent people who don't fall into any particular identifiable class other than "runners and their supporters" which, as mentioned above, is by its very nature an extremely diverse group of people, does absolutely nothing to aid me in determining what the person or people who did this want. Maybe they are crazy, and want to kill people because their particular mental health issue is causing that feeling, but if it were motivated by some belief, then none of us is any the wiser now than we were before it happened.
As a result of this incident (that seems such a trivial word to employ in the circumstances), security at next weekend's London Marathon will be reviewed and, undoubtedly, tightened. Likewise, all the other spring marathons and similar sporting events will be looked at again. We know from experience that no sporting event can be completely immune from the threat of interference, from swimmers at the Boat Race to the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics, but while the safety and security of those participating and spectating has to be ensured as far as it possibly can be, it should not be to the extent that what is, for me, a key element of sport and the mass participation events I can comfortably "compete" in (even if it's only against myself) gets lost - freedom. As Nathalie put it yesterday, it's the freedom of "the wind in your face, the speed in your hair."
There is only so much we can and, in my opinion, should do to stop horrific acts. My feeling today, as it was after both 9/11 in the US and 7/7 in the UK, is one of defiance. I felt so strongly about it last night, that I actually just wanted to get on my bike and ride it (although my injuries from Friday are still preventing me). I noticed in watching the footage of the Boston blasts on the news that many of the runners coming up to the finishing line had, unwittingly, begun their stance of defiance immediately. I saw several competitors turn their heads to see where the noise had come from just as they crossed the line - and then they stopped their watches. An auto-pilot reaction drummed in from years of training and trying to set new personal bests, no doubt, but no-one was going to stop them from finishing and accurately recording their race.
It is vitally important that we do not let these people drive us into a state of fear or deprive us of our liberty to walk, run and cycle whenever we choose. Some people don't have that liberty in the countries in which they live. We have our precious freedom - let's keep it that way.
Could not agree more!
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