Six weeks ago, our nation was struck by tragedy when two bombs went off during the Boston Marathon. The terrorist attack forced runners off the course which meant they didn’t get to finish the race.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway decided to give some of these runners a chance to finish their marathon run before the Indianapolis 500 today. They contacted the Boston Athletic Association and got the contact information for runners in Indiana and surrounding states that didn’t get to finish the race.

About 35 runners showed up to race and got their symbolic moment to cross the finish line. They also gave the runners tickets to the Indy 500 race.  The fact that this was done on Memorial Day weekend just shows even more symbolism. It honors the loss of lives that should not have been taken.

The incident killed three people and injured more than 140 bystanders. It is an event that we will never forget and these runners deserved the chance to finish their race. Even though IndyCar racing and running have no correlation with each other, it was a great idea to let the runners finish their race.

It doesn’t matter if they didn’t run the full marathon at one time; it’s the fact that they lived through the attack yet the day will haunt them forever. I’m sure this remarkable event gave them a little bit of closure, knowing they are safe and that people support them across the nation.

They didn’t have the best weather for the final lag, but they fought through and finally made it to the finish line… six weeks later than expected.