Boston Marathon Tragedy, So Shocking

It made me cry to hear that one of the victims was 8 years old.  As a Mom and a runner, I’m heartbroken for the family and for all the victims today.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you’ll know that I’m a runner. I ran the Boston Marathon twice, plus a number of other races that attract large numbers of participants and spectators.  The Boston Marathon is New England’s biggest spectator sport — with more than 500,000 coming to watch.  Generally, there are more than 25,000 runners.

I heard the terrible news about the Boston Marathon tragedy on my way to pick up the girls from a friends house earlier today. Two bombs exploded near the finish line. I was absolutely shocked.  From what I’ve heard at this point, two (now three as of 8:54pm) people were killed, as many as 100 (now 132, including 8 children) were injured … some with horrific injuries such as limb amputation. You can view a picture of the smoky Boston Marathon finish area here (it is not graphic).

The Boston Marathon starts in waves — with the first runners off around 10am and the last runners off an hour or so later. The explosion occurred at 2:50pm. It would have been recreational runners finishing up at the time of the explosion this afternoon. The injured were mostly people sitting in the stands watching the finish.

Marathon officials announced that of the 23,326 official starters, 17,584 finished the race. 4,496 runners crossed 40K but did not finish; they were diverted away from the finish line area. Officials moved the baggage claim and family meeting area to another location.

My kids happened to hear about the explosion and were immediately worried that it was my race (I ran a 10k this past Saturday.). Kids often personalize things and I assured them it had nothing to do with the race I had run a couple days ago.  I explained that it happened “far away” and that were were totally safe. I wish I had kept the (music) station off on the ride home. 

If you have need to talk to your kids about terrible news events, my fellow Parent’s blogger Leticia has some good resources for talking with kids about tragedies: 5 Helpful Resources for Talking to Kids About Tragedies which includes resources such as Explaining the News to Our Kids by Common Sense Media.

I am saddened to hear about the explosions. My heart goes out to the victims, their families and all those who’ve had to deal with this trauma first hand. It make me so sad that a day that should be one of celebration for the incredible feat of training for and finishing a marathon, should end so awfully.

 

4 Responses

  1. The bombing was a shock and I can’t get the image of little Martin Richards smiling out of my head. I haven’t mentioned anything to my children about it, as they are younger. However, I’m an ESL teacher and made a worksheet to use to discuss the event with students. I know that as teachers, we are compelled at least to acknowledge events, at least for older students. I tried to make it suitable for 6th & 7th graders as well. I tried to keep it upbeat and focused more on the marathon itself. It’s at http://faiza-raintree.blogspot.com/2013/04/esl-reading-lesson-boston-marathon.html Hope it’s alright to share it. If you don’t think so, please feel absolutely free to delete it, and I won’t mind in the least. Thanks.

    • Liesl Den says:

      Thank you for sharing your worksheets. It’s a delicate balance talking to kids about these kinds of terrible events and keeping them from being scared that something bad will happen to them… what I share with my 9 year old is completely different with what I’ll talk about with my 7 or 5 year old. I thought your questions were thoughtful.

      Again, thanks for sharing your work with us. ~Liesl

  2. The bombing was a shock and I can’t get the image of little Martin Richards smiling out of my head. I haven’t mentioned anything to my children about it, as they are younger. However, I’m an ESL teacher and made a worksheet to use to discuss the event with students. I know that as teachers, we are compelled at least to acknowledge events, at least for older students. I tried to make it suitable for 6th & 7th graders as well. I tried to keep it upbeat and focused more on the marathon itself. It’s at http://faiza-raintree.blogspot.com/2013/04/esl-reading-lesson-boston-marathon.html Hope it’s alright to share it. If you don’t think so, please feel absolutely free to delete it, and I won’t mind in the least. Thanks.

    • Liesl Den says:

      Thank you for sharing your worksheets. It’s a delicate balance talking to kids about these kinds of terrible events and keeping them from being scared that something bad will happen to them… what I share with my 9 year old is completely different with what I’ll talk about with my 7 or 5 year old. I thought your questions were thoughtful.

      Again, thanks for sharing your work with us. ~Liesl

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