Paying My Respects to Boston Marathon

Over the last week I was out in Massachusetts and Rhode Island visiting family, friends, and going to a wedding.  I'll dedicate this post to mostly the running related stops in Boston and Copley Square, the site of the Boston Marathon bombings.

My wife, daughter, and I spent the day up in Boston, and I lugged around my daughter as seen below:

She behaved very well!

We stopped for a bite to eat at Saus, which was a delightful experience into waffles and yummy sauces.  We then took the T down to Copley Square to pay our respects at the site of the Boston Marathon Bombings.  The weather was scattered showers for most of the morning and set a slightly somber tone when we visited.  I had trouble putting together deep thoughts as I walked around, had trouble accepting that the tragedy was real. I took a few photos to capture the memories and hopefully find new meanings to them over time.  Right now I am at, humanity always bands together and pulls out ahead (sounds very Dr. Who-esque).  We will never stop evil, and we are pretty sheltered in America to its magnitude compared to a lot of the world, but there is always love to overcome whatever happens.  And with that, here are my photos:

I didn't bring anything to contribute to the memorial, just my thoughts, prayers, and determination to keep running stronger, Boston Strong even.

Walking around Boston, the Boston Strong shirts and swag were everywhere.  Not sure where the proceeds are going from them all.

I stopped at the +New Balance store across the street from the memorial, since I couldn't resist visiting almost every sneaker and athletic store I walked passed (it was a bit hard to try on shoes with my kid om my back!).  I noticed they had a sale on the M890v3 Boston Marathons shoes (I currently run in M890v2), 20% off! which brought the price down to $90, which was pretty decent price and the mood was right. Plus, I was going to need new shoes in the next couple weeks. My daughter just fell asleep on my back as we walked in the store, so my wife had to get them on my feet to try on and tie them, bless her heart.   Here are the photos of the new kicks!

I tested them out on a couple runs (PR'd my half marathon time with them on Sunday, but that will be a different post) and they work great!

In the afternoon we grabbed some sandwiches from Sam LaGrassa's , then some cannolis from Mike's Pastry. Here is my daughter enjoying them on the way back home:

Nom Nom Nom

So that was my jaunt to Boston. My next post will recap my road running times in a not very run friendly area, a sub 1:30 half marathon time, and a video of me getting chased by a wild turkey in my mother's back yard!

Have you been able to get out to the memorial?

Are you a fan of cannolis?

Can you catch me up on the last week of running blogging in Chicago in short so I don't spend hours reading 100+ blog entries???