I just found out about the horror that is the bombing at the Boston Marathon.

To fully understand the horror it’s important to understand some stuff about Marathon’s in general.

The Boston Marathon requires that the competitor quality. For a 40 year old male, like yours truly, I would have needed to finish another marathon in less than 3 hours and 15 minutes. Doing the Boston Marathon means working really hard to get really good and doing two marathons in a year.

If you’ve ever attended a marathon, the pro’s or elite’s finish in less than 3 hours. Most of the press and the spectators at the finish line are there to see those folks cross the line. At the four hour mark the only people left over are volunteers, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, best friends and cousins coming to see their loved one’s cross the line.

And, of course, volunteers who are sitting there cheering each person as they cross the line.

So it’s going to be a deadly mix of 40+ year old finishers who probably have families with small children crossing the line then. You’ve got the 40 year olds who finished and are trying to recover, and the 50-60 years old who are crossing the line.

If your goal was to create maximum tragedy and you wanted to place a bomb, the four hour mark would be just perfect.

A massacre of innocents to move some asinine ideology forward.