The morning after the Boston Marathon bombing, metro Atlanta’s running community came together for a vigil and “silent run” to honor the Boston victims and to send a message that they will not be deterred from their routine by Monday’s violence.
“We don’t want people to be afraid to get out and run, and this is a great way to get past it right away,” said Karen Kaye, spokeswoman for the Big Peach Running Company, which hosted the 7 a.m. vigils and runs at each of the company’s seven metro Atlanta stores. “It’s like getting right back on that bicycle the next day.”
Kaye said Monday’s bombing “affects everybody, whether you run or not. The Boston Marathon is a big deal, and to me, as a runner, this is like something happening at the Super Bowl.”
Personal trainer Reginald Bohannon was one of several dozen participating in the vigil at the Big Peach store on Peachtree Street in Midtown.
“I felt coming here, I would be amongst people feeling pretty much the same way I do,” Bohannon said. “It’s going to be something in memory of the Boston victims.”
Bohannon said he dressed in all black for Tuesday morning’s run “because it’s a mourning time, it’s a sad occasion.” He wore a backpack with an American flag “just to show people that we are Americans and we’re sticking together through these tough times, and we’re going to continue with our American way of life.”
Kaye said one employee from the Big Peach store in Midtown, David Sarich, was among the thousands running Monday’s Boston Marathon.
“He was three blocks away and he heard the explosion,” Kaye said after getting a phone call from Sarich saying he was safe.
She said Sarich told her that he wasn’t quite sure what he was hearing at first. “All he said was, ‘I want to go back to my hotel and take a shower and drink a beer,’ and he’s not even a beer drinker.”
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