What the Boston Marathon Means for One Grieving Husband

While this year’s Boston Marathon is surely filled with a tough mix of pain and hope for a great many of the nearly 36,000 runners touched by last year’s bombing, at least one is facing a different struggle with grief: Scott Menzies, a Virginia father of three. He’s running on Monday in place of his wife, Meg Cross Menzies, who was training for the race when she was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver on a fateful morning in January.

More on Yahoo Shine: 2014 Boston Marathon Guide for Runners and Spectators

“I will run the Boston Marathon tomorrow for Meg,” Scott wrote on his late wife’s Facebook page on Sunday. “I am going to do my best to finish what she started and I can't wait to see, hear and experience what she would have experienced if she were still here. I want to feel her with me — it will be very emotional. I will do my best to make her proud.” According to a friend’s Facebook update, Scott finished with a time of 3:51:57 at 3:01 PM with a pace of 8:50 per mile.

More on Yahoo:Meb Klefezighi Holds Off Challenge, Rita Jeptoo Dominates in Boston Marathon Performances

Scott, a police sergeant in Ashland, Virginia, who joined his wife for weekly 8-mile runs, was doing just that on Jan. 13, when an SUV allegedly rounded a corner and flew into the couple’s path. And while he was able to dodge the car, Meg, just 34 years old, was not. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she died of her injuries.

The loss of Meg devastated the community, where more than 1,200 people turned out for her funeral, and has left her family bereft. “My children get upset every night. They miss her,” Scott tells the Washington Post of his kids, just 5, 7 and 9. “The nights are tough, and then there are questions in the daytime that I just don’t know how to answer. You don’t really prepare for this.” The accident that killed Meg was filled with tragic ironies: The driver charged in the accident, a doctor battling leukemia, had lost his own wife in a car crash a decade earlier. Additionally, Scott’s duties on the police force include educating the public on the dangers of driving while intoxicated.

As he runs today, tens of thousands of runners around the world have his back through a powerful Facebook group, Meg’s Miles Supporters. Friend Brooke Roney started the page as a virtual event, Meg’s Miles — a place where people could post thoughts and photos of their runs in support of Meg’s family on the Saturday after she was killed. “Take in the fresh air, be aware of your surroundings, keep your headphones on low, feel the heaviness in your lungs, the soreness in your legs, and be grateful for it — for all of it,” Roney asked of the participants. The event took off with more than 99,000 people across several continents getting on board, and has since expanded to the supporters’ page, which has more than 16,000 members.

“It's remarkable how Meg's story has touched so many lives and continues to do so,” Roney tells Yahoo Shine through email. “Scott and his family have been incredibly overwhelmed with how many people continue to pray for them and he doesn't even know who most of these strangers are. It's a testament to the running community, how close the community is, and also a testament to what kind of woman Meg was.” A stay-at-home mom and Virginia native, Meg “was too humble to tell many people [that she] had her eye on a spot at the U.S. Olympic trials,” the Washington Post reports. Her Facebook page, kept active by her husband, is filled with happy family photos.

The Facebook page Meg's Miles has a near-constant stream of daily posts from runners who are both logging miles in Meg’s honor and sending shout-outs of support to Scott for his marathon quest. “Good luck, Scott, you’ve got this,” reads the sign of an Ohio man, who posted a photo of himself and his kids to the page on Monday.
 
Roney and a group of several other women will next start a nonprofit focusing on raising awareness of drunk driving, texting and driving, and overall runner and cyclist safety. Meanwhile, another Facebook user and fellow runner in this year's Boston Marathon, Kel Kelly of Boston, is behind another supportive effort: the creation of a striking memorial built out of donated running shoes at the race’s 1-mile mark.
 
“‘Meg Menzies Soles of Love’ structure was built with 388 pairs of running shoes sent from around the world,” Kelly notes on Facebook, where she first learned of Meg and her story. That’s also where, on Monday, she posted the following dedication: “Today we run. We run for Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu, Sean Collier and their families. We run for the more than 260 others who were injured during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. We run for the first responders and volunteers who didn’t run when those two bombs went off. We run for firefighter Michael Kennedy who was planning to run today, but lost his life battling a ferocious blaze last month. We run for Meg Cross Menzies, and all the other runners who lost their lives doing what they loved.”

More on Yahoo Shine:
New Mom With Cancer Fights for Life After Birthing Preemie Twins
Boston Marathon Survivor Rebekah Gregory: Why My Wedding Date Is Especially Significant