A Letter to San Diego

Dear San Diego,

Almost exactly one year ago I wrote an open letter to Boston. It had been a year since the marathon bombings and five years since I had lived in the city. As a runner and as someone who considers part of her “growing up” to have occurred in the city of Boston, I was deeply hurt by the bombings. And also incredibly comforted by the strength and resiliency of the city and it’s people.

In the letter, I spoke about my time in Boston and about my desire, and need, to run the Boston Marathon again, even closing the letter with a #verbal for 2015. Well, I ran the Ventura Marathon last September and qualified for the 2015 Boston Marathon. And now Marathon Monday is a mere 5 days away.

This year, as I think about that day, the marathon, the last year of training, and my history with the city, the letter I want to write is to you, the City of San Diego.

Thank you for taking me in as a 23 year old college graduate with a very limited view on the possibilities you would offer. I came for the sun and the laid back lifestyle, but you’ve given me so much more than that.

You gave me year round perfect weather to practice yoga, to run, to hike. You gave me a whole slew of awesome endurance athletes to surround myself with, chase up and down roads and mountains, and with whom to enjoy the beauty of San Diego. You gave me the opportunity to become a much better runner, something I didn’t know I was capable of becoming.

You gave me amazing human beings to call friends and family. A group of sweet, caring, fun loving, ridiculous, and strangely attractive people that all came together over this crazy thing called November Project, and are now a tribe and a community that San Diego should be proud of.

And you opened up so many doors in my career path. Doors that I couldn’t see and didn’t know were there when I moved. Doors that continue to amaze me and force me to pinch myself on occasion to prove that this all is real. So far it is.

So when I return to Boston tomorrow, it will feel like going home but also like coming full circle. I left as a 23 year old, 4:25 first time marathoner looking to find her place in this world and I’ll return as a 30 year old, 3:13 marathoner who has found her home.

Keep shining bright San Diego.

Love,

Lauren