#RuntoRemember

This morning, I had my third opportunity to participate in the annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.  (For the record, I have never attempted a full marathon.  Two years ago it was the 5k, and the last two years has been the half.)  There is something about this event that touches me deeply, and this year was no exception.

The title of this post is the theme of the event - Run to Remember.  It commemorates the 168 people killed and the countless other lives impacted by the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in OKC on April 19, 1995.  This event touches me in surprising ways each and every year.

I wasn't even an Oklahoma resident in 1995.  I was nowhere near the events, and I didn't even know anyone who was personally impacted.  But to be part of this run, to pause for 168 seconds of silence before it begins, to see firefighters from Oklahoma City and many, many other cities and towns making the trek in full gear, to see the community come out by the thousands to cheer on the participants moves me every time.

This year, on the Friday night before the Sunday morning event, Oklahoma City was struck by a line of severe thunderstorms with winds of 85+ miles/hour.  Saturday morning revealed huge trees broken or toppled, street signs bent over at 90 degrees, power poles snapped in two and lines down everywhere, a major interstate shut down, roofs ripped off, and over 39,000 people without electricity - all less than 24 hours before this year's marathon.

There was concern that conditions might require rerouting, even rescheduling, all or parts of the event, especially with another line of storms coming through on Saturday.  But residents, neighbors, volunteers of all sorts joined city crews in making streets safe (if not necessarily clean) and ensuring that no alterations, neither routes nor schedules, were required.  And people turned out - to participate, to cheer on participants, to help with the event - people turned out in cold, wet, windy conditions, because that's what we do in Oklahoma.

When one considers the tragedy this event commemorates, how do the inconveniences of a storm or poor race conditions begin to measure-up?  Unless conditions were such that lives would have been in danger (and they weren't), how could we possibly justify anything but pulling together and carrying-on?  And that's exactly what happened.

My wife and I have been back in Oklahoma for about three-and-a-half years, now.  It's not perfect, and it's often not very predictable, either.  One thing you can count on, though, is the character of her people and their willingness to step-up and do what needs to be done.  Twenty-two years ago, 168 people were doing just that when their lives were taken from them.  And in the aftermath, countless others stepped-up, as well.

I pray nothing like that ever happens again.  But if it does, I am confident that the citizens of this state will rise to the occasion.  That promise, demonstrated in small ways each and every day, makes me proud to be an Okie!

#RuntoRemember