Marathon Monday weekend is usually one of the best weekends of the year - there are events all over campus, it's a long weekend, warm spring weather is just arriving... it's so nice. This year was no different, up until Monday afternoon. I was sitting in the dining hall eating a late lunch with Alex, Rafa, Jonathan, Christine, and Anne when we noticed the breaking news on the small television in the corner of the room. In five minutes, nearly everyone was crowded around the small screen trying to understand what was happening. Almost everyone's first thoughts were for their friends who were running the marathon and who had passed by BC's campus not 45 minutes beforehand... anyone familiar with the remaining distance to the finish line and the average pace of marathon runners knew that there was the terrible possibility that someone they knew was nearby. Thankfully no BC students were directly next to the explosion when it happened. Chalk one up for the Jesuit Pope looking out for his universities. I texted multiple friends who I knew ran it (Jeff, my old roommate, for one) making sure they were ok. As it turned out, a few friends were under 0.5 miles away from the finish line when it happened. But they were all ok. Scared, but ok. Many of them had to walk for +1hr back to campus (after running almost 26 miles) because public transportation was shut down temporarily and taxis were in high demand. There were some nice stories of people giving free rides for the poor marathon runners who were stranded downtown. St. Ignatius, the big church on BC's campus, was used as a temporary refuge (water, blankets, etc) for runners still running at the time of the explosions. Having run the marathon last year, I can imagine how terrible it must have felt not to be able to cross the famous finish line after so many months of training. I imagine it was the only thing more heartbreaking that day than heartbreak hill itself.
Fast forward to Friday. I woke up this morning at 7:00 AM to the following text. An hour or two later, I got another.
We turned on the news immediately to learn that there was some sort of shooting at MIT and a pursuit of two suspects across Boston. One was killed, one still "on the loose." It was an easy decision to stay indoors, despite my stomach wanting an omelette and orange-mango Honest Ade. I took a nap until 12 noon after watching the news for an hour or so. Ironically it was a beautiful day outside... nice temperature, overcast. It did drizzle for a few minutes in the late afternoon, but that was it. Sirens have been going off all day. BCPD have been rolling around campus in their cars and on their motorcycles, which is both reassuring and not at the same time. I think everyone kept telling themselves that it is only one person; nonetheless, this one person was in a neighborhood not a mile away from BC's campus.
The "shelter in place ban" was lifted around 6:30 PM. The second suspect was reported as being surrounded near a house in Watertown around 7:00 PM by most news stations. About 10 minutes ago, at 8:45 PM, he was reported as being in custody. It is a sigh of relief. Very enthusiastic "U, S, A! U, S, A!" chants can be heard. Obviously the law enforcement people have done a great job, and that deserves recognition. As for the enthusiasm... I think I'll side with the silent majority who are pleased that the emotional roller-coaster in Boston this week may finally be nearing a decisive finish.
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