Boston bombing

The excitement of the upcoming London Marathon has turned into a period of shock, sadness and disbelief at recent events.

Yesterday, at around 14:50 local time, three people were killed and dozens injured in a twin bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Of the three murdered, one was an eight year-old boy called Martin.

Even though I was not in Boston and have never even been, and even though I only found out through watching the news last night, the story has shocked me to the very core. I just can't get my head around how this could happen at such an event, or anywhere else for that matter. Why anybody would want to bomb runners and spectators at a marathon is beyond me. I cannot for the life of me see any reasons. There's no military, financial or strategic reason to do this, so the only conclusion that I can jump to is that someone, or some people, simply wanted to kill and injure as many people as possible. Pointless, utterly senseless violence. Whether it is an act of domestic or foreign terrorism, or the work of an individual or a terrorist group remains to be seen, but I hope that the perpetrators are caught and duly punished.

The security measures for the London Marathon have always been stringent but I expect that they will be re-examined just to ensure that all participants and spectators on Sunday are completely safe. I am not worried and I have nothing to fear (in regard to terrorism anyway). I will feel no more or less safe than I did during the last two marathons, and I know that the police will do as brilliant a job in policing the event as they have every single year. The horrible news of yesterday has only made me more determined to start and finish the race on Sunday, as an act of defiance against the terrorist scum, and as a show of solidarity to our friends across the pond who have been affected by this atrocity.