One Year Ago Today

One year ago today, the city of Boston and the United States were rocked by the Boston Marathon bombings. I remember right where I was when I found out about the explosions. And I pretty much remember every minute of the week following Marathon Monday.

It was a week filled with emotion, fear and anger. Boston is "right around the corner" (in New England terms) and I have visited more times than I can count so the whole thing was extremely unsettling.

I was glued to CNN the whole week and with every new finding came more fear. Which boiled over that fateful Friday the whole city of Boston and surrounding areas went on lock down. What a surreal feeling. Even though I am well over an hour away from The Bean I still felt as though I could not leave the house either. I was just watching CNN all day and refreshing my Twitter feed. And for it to end the way it did..was even more surreal.

So today I wanted to dedicate this blog post to all the lives affected by this awful tragedy. I would also like to wish all of the marathon runners luck for this coming Marathon Monday. It's so nice to see that this did not break the city of Boston but rather made it stronger.

On a personal note - After the bombings, I had an epiphany. Around this time last year I had been working out hardcore for just about 4 months at that point. And about a week before the marathon I had a break down about my body. It just wasn't bouncing back after baby as quickly as I thought it would. Well, when the bombings happened and people lost legs and other limbs I had a moment of clarity. I was complaining about my two working legs..and there were people that lost their legs that were finding the silver lining in the whole awful situation AND planning on running the marathon the following year. It made me realize that from that time on if my legs and body works the way God intended it to...if I had all of my limbs and they worked...I would never complain about my body again just because it had a few extra pounds on it from making a tiny human. I still call upon that inspiration today when I am working out and especially when I am running and want to stop. I can't tell you how much further loving my body has gotten me than hating it. That was my silver lining in this tragedy.

My mantra will now always be "I have two working legs, so use them." I will be cheering all the runners on from home on Monday...good luck to all of you.

#BostonStrong