This site is kept in loving memory of Trish Reske, who passed in October of 2021.
Trish was a writer - this site captures a bit of her incredible sense of humor.
You can read Trish's full obituary here.

Boston Heartbreak

At the Finish Line two weeks after the bombings

At the Finish Line two weeks after the bombings

Within minutes of crossing the Boston Marathon finish line yesterday – 15 minutes faster than my usual time – I was elated. It was my 10th Boston Marathon and my best time ever at Boston. I saw my family in the crowded pack of spectators, waved joyfully at them, and crossed the Finish Line.

As I was quickly made my way into the Westin Hotel where our Alzheimer’s team runners and family meet every year, the bombs went off. My family had been right across the street from the second bomb just 15 minutes earlier.

We turned on the TV in the hotel meeting room while watching out the window. People were streaming every which way. The finish line was empty. The medical tent was now busy. Ambulances, police, fire trucks were racing down the street. To be watching the horror unfold on TV and be seeing it out of our window at the Westin was surreal. Many of our runners and family had not yet come in, and there was a long time where we didn’t know if everyone was OK. Thankfully, via many texts and emails, everyone was accounted for.

What should have been a celebration for over 26,000 runners became a calamity. As the BAA said in their statement: “What was intended to be a day of joy and celebration quickly became a day in which running a marathon was of little importance.”

I cannot agree more. What a terrible tragedy – for those directly affected, their families, the running community, and the Boston Marathon, whose 125-year legacy never should have to include something like this. The Boston Marathon is an internationally acclaimed event that celebrates the essence of the human spirit to overcome, to achieve a long-sought dream, or in the case of many charity runners – to help change our world for the better.

Yes, Boston will come back. Yes, we are resilient. But today I, like many other runners and family who were on Boylston Street yesterday, am hugging my kids a bit tighter and praying for those who were not as fortunate as we were.

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