Running to Remember

From Running Times online…

Running to Remember

10 years later, the 2001 U.S. marathon champion reflects on running in the shadow of 9/11

By Scott Larson

As featured in the November 2011 issue of Running Times Magazine

It was the second week of September. I was in Maine for my honeymoon. The air was crisp, the summer crowds were gone and the Twin Towers were burning. I was training for the New York City Marathon but more specifically for the U.S. marathon championships to be held in conjunction with the race. There was never a doubt in my mind that the race would take place. So I continued to run in silence among the lakes and the fall-tinged leaves--to dance around the track in what now seemed like a senseless endeavor. How could I go for a run when people were forced to jump from the 100th floor? "Can you imagine how bad it must have been for someone to do that?" I asked my wife, Robyn. She hesitated, searching for an answer. "You have to go on; you can't give in. What else are you going to do?" Her advice sounded trite and I had a hard time accepting it, but of course she was right.

Still, I felt guilty. A guilt born of an illogical reaction to an irrational act of misplaced hatred and fear. I was alive. I was safe. My friends and family were healthy. And of course I ran. It's what we runners do to cope with life's uncertainties, to make sense of the senseless--that somehow by taking that first stiff, lumbering, seemingly insignificant step, things will work out. Step by step until the cadence builds, breathing hard, legs begin to burn and the pain that comes is good because it means life and a willful sacrifice towards progress. And as lactic acid fills your legs and doubts assail you, the only way to continue is to forget.

Read on here.