Phoenix runners remember Boston Marathon victims
Apr 15, 2014, 10:16 AM | Updated: 10:24 am
PHOENIX — To mark the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombings, nearly two dozen runners gathered for a community run Tuesday in Phoenix.
“I’ve ran 64 marathons since age 50,” said Lyle Langlois, who is approaching 84 years old.
As a runner, participating in Tuesday’s run was something special for him.
“I ran Boston when I was 60 in 1990,” he said.
Before the run started, Rep. Kyrsten Sinema led the group in a moment of silence to mark the somber anniversary.
“Take a minute or two to just honor and remember the lives that we lost and the survivors,” she said. “Some of them who can no longer run.”
The run took off from Runner’s Den near 16th Street and Maryland in Phoenix. For 30 minutes, community members old and young ran side-by-side along a nearby canal and finished near the Arizona Biltmore.
“We’re kind of a family, every runner in the world felt the impact of that day,” said Christina Martinez.
She will be running this year’s Boston Marathon on Monday. As part of Team MR8, Martinez will join Sinema in the run to benefit Martin Richard, the 8-year-old who was killed in the blasts. He was the youngest of the three victims who died that day. More than 260 people were hurt when the twin explosions went off near the finish line.
“A young spectator who probably grew his own affinity for running,” Martinez added. “Maybe someday he would have been the one crossing the finish line.”
The runners who will join Sinema ath this year’s marathon are also raising funds for both the Richard family and the Boston One Fund.
Arizona state Sen. Katie Hobbs was training to run this year’s Boston Marathon along with Team MR8 but she broke her leg during the annual House-Senate softball game last week. That didn’t stop her from being at the community run.
“I’ve done a lot of half marathons, but never a marathon,” she said. “When this opportunity came on I realized I could do it.”
She will still travel to Boston and said she plans on training again once her leg heals.
