By EMMA CEPLINSKAS
Last April, the city of Boston was shaken by the bombings that occurred at the Boston Marathon, injuring nearly three hundred people and killing four. A shock wave of panic and sorrow spread throughout the country.
However, this year’s 118th annual Boston Marathon marked a time for healing and celebration for the lives that were lost and those who were injured. Malden High School staff member Nathan Lamar had the privilege to participate in the marathon.
Out of a pool of several hundred runners, Lamar was one of the lucky seventy eight to be chosen to run and raise money for the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Lamar had made a list of things he wanted to do in his life after graduating from high school and running a marathon was one written on it. In preparation for the marathon, Lamar ran three days a week and rode a bike two days a week. During the weeks leading up to the marathon, his diet consisted of mainly carbohydrates, causing him to gain five pounds that he later shed after the marathon was over.
On the day of the marathon, the “emotion was so high you could feel it,” expressed Lamar. The atmosphere was “indescribable.” As Lamar “rounded the corner and could see the finish line [he] had a moment where [he] could not believe it was coming to an end,” he stated. He described the sense of accomplishment as well as the sadness he felt upon finishing the marathon because “[he] wanted that feeling to go on and on.” Lamar finished the marathon with a time of four hours, twenty four minutes, and thirty seconds.
After preparing and running for the Boston Marathon, Lamar advises everyone “to find something that requires them to discipline themselves and work towards a goal” in order to experience the sense of fulfillment and accomplishment that comes after achieving it.
Lamar does not plan on running another marathon as he still has many more things to cross off his list of goals such as participating in a triathlon and hiking the remainder of peaks he has yet to climb in New Hampshire after climbing 26.
“As tragic as last year was, the ability of the city to create an indescribable moment for every runner was the greatest moment ... and speaks to the amazing power of humanity to create something good out of something bad,” expressed Lamar. The Boston Marathon unites people from all over the world and Malden is just one of the many cities to take part in the amazing event. Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly captioned the photo as taking place on the day of the marathon.