Like so many people, I’m horrified by the bombings in Boston on Monday and my thoughts are with everyone affected.

My connection with the running community is modest but it was enough to bring it all a little bit closer to home; to make it all a little bit more real. I watched a recording of the elite race on Tuesday evening and it was impossible to reconcile the happy, cheering crowds lining Boylston Street as the leaders completed the race with the carnage that we saw a couple of hours later.

As the human stories behind the tragedy become known it’s clear that, once again, we’ve seen both the worst and the best of mankind this week.

[The article Boston  by Philip Harris originally appeared on Solitary Mindset on April 18th, 2013]