While eyes and ears are turned to Boston waiting to hear answers to the questions of who, why and how, Salt Lake City is gearing up for its annual marathon. Beginning Saturday, runners will start at the U’s Olympic Legacy Bridge and weave their way 26.2 miles to Liberty Park.
Because the race starts at the U, multiple roads — including portions of Mario Cappechi Drive, Wasatch Drive and South Campus Drive — will be closed in the morning hours to allow organizers room to set up and give runners full access to the road.
In preparation for the event and in light of the bombings in Boston, local police agencies met Tuesday morning to discuss if additional safety precautions would be needed.
“Security measures were discussed,” said Sgt. Mike Richards of U Police. “There are no major changes [to the original plan].”
Richards said the group discussed the most up-to-date information they had available, which was not much different than what has been shown on the news.
“What we discussed was officer awareness, looking for the unusual,” he said. “But that’s pretty much what we do as police officers, anyway.”
Not only is Jess Taverna, an advisor in the school of business, registered to run the Salt Lake Marathon this weekend, she also calls Boston home.
“[I am] definitely not questioning if I will run the race, my brain doesn’t go there,” she said. “I’m not walking around thinking I’m invincible, but I don’t just assume I’m going to close up my shell and not live my life.”
After confirming all her friends and family were safe, she watched the news come in with the rest of the world. Even though Taverna was working in Washington, D.C., during the events of 9/11, she felt a disconnect with the events.
“The whole time it felt like it was something happening out there to other people,” she said. “But this one, even though I’ve got no direct connection, it feels like two communities I’m so connected to — running and Boston. I felt this one much more personally than any other event or attack.”
Taverna did not have the goal of running the marathon this weekend to quality for the Boston Marathon next spring, but these events might have changed her mind.
“Immediately I started to make running that race feel more momentous,” she said. “I don’t want to just finish this thing now, I do want to qualify. I want to be there in Boston next year if I can be there.”
She added that the new goal is a tremendous amount of pressure, and she isn’t sure if she will be able to qualify during this weekend’s race.
“I know it’s not completely out of my ability, but it’s not what I trained to do,” she said. “I wouldn’t say I’m confident I would be able to do it. That’s been a hard thing because I really want to be there.”
But if she doesn’t qualify at the race she will just keep trying.
“I can’t separate out the desire to be there as a participant, that would be the main goal,” she said. “I would be there to do it, because that’s just who I am.”