Many of you in the US may not be aware that last week, 1 hour from my home we lost 3 law enforcement
officers (and 2 wounded) after a clearly disturbed young man went on a rampage with weaponry and kept
an entire city of 70,000 on lock down for 24 hours.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/moncton-mounties-funeral-what-happened-here-is-an-outrage-stephen-harper-says-1.2670491
I found out today that one of these heroes was a fellow runner and the same day Happy Lily, Mr. B.S and
myself were running a 26.2 on Mother's Day, May 11th, Cst. Doug Larche was running a PB half marathon
at the same race.
Cst Larche also grew up in my hometown and from the stats I can see has been participating in races for over
a decade and ran some of the other races on the same day as DH and I.
(this is from the marathons FB page)
Just found out that Douglas Larche, one of the three slain RCMP officers ran in the Half Marathon
on May 11th. He placed 68th/653 with a PB of 1:41:40. An amazing feat of this man who sacrificed his
life for the safety of others. Let us be silent at 1PM to honor Douglas Larche, Dave Ross and
Fabrice Gevaudan.Their funerals were today. Rest is peace fallen heros and fellow runner. Today the race organizerschanged their FB main page photo with the one below from the race to honor Cst. Larche. He is bib # 769
Oh, Beth... This makes me very sad...
PRs: Boston Marathon, 3:27, April 15th 2013
Cornwall Half-Marathon, 1:35, April 27th 2013
18 marathons, 18 BQs since 2010
Former Bad Ass
Very sad.
Damaris
Me too. Lots of crying in New Brunswick today. The funerals were televised.One officer has 3 small children. Another a 1 1/2 yr old baby and another on the way.One was a canine officer. His partner was at the funerals today. You could hear him audibly "crying/whining"
all through the ceremony.
Three officers down is a huge loss for any community. But it's especially hard when it's a small community. And NB doesn't have a big population, everyone knows everyone in some way, so it's like some of your friends died that day... I read the link you posted, Beth, and it was very moving. The dog sniffing his fallen partner's hat... :-(
I stopped following the story after they caught the killer. What were his intentions? Was he after RCMP officers? I heard he was some anti-everything nutcase...
Tragic indeed, and it doesn't stop there. Two officers were shot and killed in Vegas and there was yet another school shooting resulting in loss of life in Oregon.
There is a total disregard for life by some people, you cannot keep up with all of this crap anymore.
on my way to badass
Still waiting for the perfect race picture. 5K PR-33:52 , 10K PR 1:11:16, First HM 2:42:28
Tragic indeed, and it doesn't stop there. Two officers were shot and killed in Vegas and there was yet another school shooting resulting in loss of life in Oregon. There is a total disregard for life by some people, you cannot keep up with all of this crap anymore.
No it doesn't stop there unfortunately. But as Lily said for a relatively small province and
population (750,000 likely smaller than many cities you all live in) such as ours this is unthinkable
and reaches almost everyone in a personal way. I guess this has little interest outside Canada
but for us its a horrible tragedy.One of the officers extended family lives in my community and somehow knowing Cst Larche was a fellow
marathoner tugs at my heart even more.
I have no words. RIP.
No it doesn't stop there unfortunately. But as Lily said for a relatively small province and population (750,000 likely smaller than many cities you all live in) such as ours this is unthinkable and reaches almost everyone in a personal way. I guess this has little interest outside Canada but for us its a horrible tragedy.One of the officers extended family lives in my community and somehow knowing Cst Larche was a fellow marathoner tugs at my heart even more.
These tragedies extend further than you realize. We lost two Alaska State Troopers about a month earlier. Our state is similar in size population-wise (730,000+) (about 40% live in Anchorage), but the village where they were killed has under 300 people. It's hundreds of miles from where I live, but when something like this happens, it affects everyone.
We are all sorry to hear about NB's loss. You are not alone.
That is sad Beth. Thanks for posting.
Mmmmm...beer
So sad. RIP.
-Dave
My running blog
Goals | sub-18 5k | sub-3 marathon 2:56:46!!
Barking Mad To Run
So tragic. And, Beth, it does not have 'little interest' outside of Canada, believe me. It was on the US news quite a bit for a few days. A tragedy like this touches all of us in certain ways. Personally, I mourn any uniformed officer - whether it be military, police, firefighter EMT, etc - who is killed in the line of duty, these folks give of themselves to serve us and we should mourn their passing, wherever it happens, especially as it most likely happened because they were trying to protect and/or save some of us. My heart goes out to all the family members who have to deal with this.
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." Theodore Roosevelt