There is a well-done story in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about Milwaukee-area residents returning to run in the Boston Marathon, one year after the bombings.
One of those people is South Milwaukeean Michelle Tanem. Check out the story here, and join me in wishing Michelle well in the race.
From the story …
Tanem had just finished the race and she was elated. The 46-year-old mother of three from South Milwaukee who works in communications at Johnson Controls has been running for 20 years and has completed more than 50 marathons, mostly around Wisconsin and the Midwest.
But Boston was always in the back of her mind.
“If you’re a runner, a marathon runner, there always is this Boston qualifying time,” said Tanem. “For the average runner, it’s kind of this ultimate goal that’s always out there.”
She made the time and applied for the race and had to wait months to find out she was accepted for her first Boston Marathon in 2013.
“It was a really big deal,” she said.
She finished 20 minutes before the bombs went off, but it took her a while to collect her medal, get checked over by the medical staff, get water and a little nutrition and then get to the gear-check tables.
She spotted her husband, John, back at the end of the race and assumed he was on his way to meet her. But John was stuck in a Summerfest-type crowd, with a mass of people, so he wasn’t going anywhere fast. He decided to just soak up the atmosphere.
Then the first bomb detonated.
“And you wonder, what is that? A celebratory firework or something?” said Michelle Tanem.
Then the second bomb exploded.
“And collectively, we all knew it was something. You could see the cloud,” said Tanem.
The people around John Tanem began to run. He saw a woman trying to hold on to her three young children. First responders rushed in without regard for their own safety. John helped the best he could, moving people away from danger. He was unharmed.
“We’re so, so lucky that he was that close and he didn’t get hurt,” said Michelle Tanem.
It seemed like it took forever, but Michelle and John did finally meet up and when they did, Michelle’s emotions turned on her. The thrill of completing her first Boston vanished.
“The feeling that was strongest for me was guilt,” she said. “My husband wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for me.”
Her three children, ages 8 to 28, weren’t at the race — but only because they had just been on a trip the previous week. It all left Tanem feeling sad and hurt but mostly with a powerful sense of guilt.
“Why here, why this environment?” she said. “These are everyday people. They are families and friends everywhere you turn. It’s the most celebratory, glorious environment you could ever ask for. It is an international event because Boston is the best-known marathon, and I felt guilty as a runner that all those people were there to support runners like myself. And yet they were all put in danger.” …
She never doubted she would go back this year. The threat of some horrific repeat stunt is a little scary, sure, but so were the Olympics, and athletes don’t stay home under a threat. So she will wear her Run Strong bracelet, which a friend picked up at the Marathon Sports store on Boylston, and the rubber band bracelet her daughter made for her in the race’s colors this year: blue, orange and white.
She will be careful, but she will not be stopped.
“I’m to the point where it’s time to focus on the positive, and I am looking forward to drawing from the positive energy in Boston,” said Tanem.
“And you know how runners are. Whether you are first, last, in the middle, whether you have run a thousand races or this is your first time, every other person around you is cheering for you. Everybody is out there supporting you to achieve your best. It’s this incredible, supportive, loving environment.
“And we always get back up and try again. We don’t stop running.”
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