Tatyana McFadden made history this weekend — winning the New York City marathon to take home the Gram Slam of the world’s four major marathons : New York, Boston, London and Chicago. McFadden, who was born in Russia and raised in the United States, is the first person to win a marathon Grand Slam.
Over the weekend, runners gathered in Bethlehem to run the city’s first-ever marathon. While the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the Boston Marathon attacks influenced the events, the races went off without any problems.
In the minutes after two bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon, countless regular people pitched in to help first responders tend to the wounded. One of those was Dr. Chris Rupe, a Salina, Kan., surgeon who finished running the marathon seconds before the blast, and then pitched in to help the injured.
Last week’s Jerusalem Marathon was replete with controversy, with Palestinian officials telling those signed up they should withdraw. But one man, an Egyptian-American, wanted to spread his own message, God is love, as he ran.