Boston Will Never Lose its Spirit

Pride, dedication, history, and challenge are the things I think of when I think of the Boston Marathon. This years marathon was on Monday the 15th and two bombs went off near the finish line of the 117th race. Three people were killed and over 100 people were injured. This day is supposed to be a time of celebration and joy being able to compete with others that have made the same commitment and sacrifices to accomplish a dream or goal but this year it was tarnished and disgraced. When I hear of bombings, attacks, wars, etc. I always initially wonder what people are thinking when they plan and or participate in these devastating events. I don't understand the motivation behind this bombing or most other bombings for that matter. I find it extremely upsetting someone intentionally harms others in such a devastating way. In this specific circumstance thousands of individuals work extremely hard to qualify for prestigious and idealized race by dedicating an enormous amount of time and energy to training and racing. Although I do not yet know how it feels to qualify for Boston I can relate to the commitment one makes to participate in a marathon. For this main reason I had an emotional tie to this bombing that took place. I did not know anyone that got injured or was affected first hand by this event, however, being a runner and having part of my larger community suffer was heart wrenching.  

I wore my seattle marathon race shirt yesterday to honor boston.

Last summer, 2012, I took a class on the anthropology of popular culture and for my final project I put together a blog and photo essay and within the blog I incorporated ideas from Stuart Hall, Michael Warner, and Anderson with regards to imagined communities, cultural roots, and perceptions of time. My goal was to gain perspectives from a variety of people with different backgrounds in the sport of running. I also collected photos from runners that say something about what running means to them or how they perceive running.

Throughout my work on this project I gained a deeper connection to the overall running community by having people that I have never met participate in my survey and pass it on to other runners. 

My Running Anthropology Blog

Runners are mentally and physically tough and there is a mutual respect for our competitors, friends, and other runners in our small running communities and at the larger scale community. This was really seen at the larger scale in response to the bombings. After this occurred there was an outbreak of people dedicating their runs to Boston, deciding to run a marathon, and trying to help and get involved in any way possible.

The Eugene marathon, Seattle marathon, Road Runner, and many other running companies and races have both posted and/or emailed people in their communities about keeping Boston in our thoughts and prayers. 

The nation can really come together in times of devastation and need which gives me an immense sense of national community and pride. 

With all of this said I do not think the Boston marathon will lose its prestige or spirit. It is still an incredible race that I believe will continue to attract dedicated runners of incredible skill. This has proven to be an opportunity for the running community and the nation to unite in a supportive front for all those affected by this tragedy. 

Words from Obama

Skydiving!

On March 30, 2013 I went to Toledo WA to go static line skydiving with my friends Jeremy and Jen. Static line skydiving and tandem skydiving are the two options for a first jump. We chose the static line skydiving because you get to jump on your own. To do the static line skydiving we had to do about 3 hours of training so that we would be prepared for the jump. 

Jen, Jeremy, and I about to do our first solo jumps!

After the training we went over last minute details and then boarded the plane. I was sitting with my back to the pilots seat, Jen was in the back facing me, Jeremy was in the front sitting next to the pilot, and the jumpmaster was beside me and behind Jeremy. Jeremy was going to jump first and because I was sitting with my back to the pilot I had a hard time turning to see what was going on. I heard a loud BANG! The door flew open and Jeremy was about to jump but then I heard another loud noise and wasn't sure what happened. I thought that Jeremy either fell out of the plane or his pilot shoot went off and the jumpmaster threw him out. I thought this was a possibility because during training they warned us that if our shoot accidentally went off while in the plane we would be thrown out of the plane to prevent damages to the aircraft. Luckily, this did not happen and his jump went well. 

I was up next...I moved to the front of the plane by the door. We circled around some more getting into position again at 3,500 feet. The jumpmaster reminded me of a couple of things and then opened the door. Again, BANG!! The feeling that I experienced when the door slammed open and I could feel the wind gushing by was when I got the biggest rush. I was going over the procedure again in my head, my heart was pounding, and my legs were shaking. I never thought about not jumping but the initial shock of this gave me the biggest adrenaline rush of the entire experience. The engine of the plane slowed down a bit and the jumpmaster told me to climb out of the plane. I held onto the bar below the wing, looked over and got the signal to go. My hands were already slipping so letting go was easy. After falling a few hundred feet in 5 seconds my shoot went off and it was now time for me to maneuver to the ground. Before my jump I went over in detail where I wanted to land, where I didn't want to end up, etc. However, when I was in the air looking down I was disoriented. I had no idea where the landing field was because it all looked the same. I had a radio attached to my helmet and I got coached down. Finally, as I got closer and closer to the ground I realized where I was and what my target was. However, the faster I lost elevation the sooner I realized that I could have an issue. There were two fences but it was questionable if I was going to make it over the first one. On my radio my coach said watch out for the fence but at that point I had no idea how to move away from it and just hoped that I would clear it. I did! Just barley. Then I flair my parachute and land on my ass getting a lovely grass stain on my blue jeans. I then get up and realize that I am boxed in by the fences that I saw from above and wasn't sure how to get out. One of the people that was coaching us on the radio came over held down part of the fence with his shoe and told me to be carful when climbing through because it was an electric fence. 

When I landed I think I was still processing what I had just done because all of the instructors were asking me how it was and if I wanted to do it again. I had a good time but I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do it again. Later that afternoon after we had gotten home it hit me what I had just done and how much I actually enjoyed it. I liked the adrenaline rush, the endorphins, and the community that I got a slight look into. 

I decided I wanted to do it again but this time I wanted to do the first AFF jump which involves more training and more skill. The first AFF jump is done with two other instructors from between 10,000 and 15,000 feet. However, you are not attached to either of them but they hold onto you during the free fall and signal for you to preform specific skills. After you pull your chute you are on your own again. Jeremy also decided that he wanted to do this jump so we called the skydiving place on monday and made a reservation for that next weekend. Unfortunately, the weather in Washington isn't always the best and we ended having our session canceled because of the weather. I have not yet done this jump but hope to in the near future.         

After my jump! My parachute did me well!