Krause: Flanagan may not have won Marathon, but she did make a statement

Idle Boston Marathon chatter while waiting for an explanation from the MBTA on why Rita Jeptoo outran a trolley car going into Kenmore Square …It?s certainly within bounds to question Shalane Flanagan?s game plan going into the race. She gambled, and it didn?t work out. But that?s what gambling is. You take a shot and you either win or lose. There?s no in-between.But let?s take something into account here. Flanagan grew up on this course, has a deep-rooted sense of history — and maybe a bit of a proprietary feeling as well — about it. Perhaps more than most of the elite runners who come here every year to challenge themselves, Flanagan?s anger over what happened a year ago went to the core of her being.She wanted to win. But just as much as that, she wanted to make a statement that she, a Boston native whose parents both ran this race, and who literally grew up with distance running on the front burner, was on a mission. She wanted not only to run, but she wanted to make it memorable. Where some people run away from that responsibility, she embraced it. She wanted to be the face of the Boston Marathon.And in a way, she was. Perhaps not the way she wanted, but the drama she created made her the face of the race anyway.There will not be such a need for that next year. Maybe she can just come here and run her race without the two-ton elephant of being a spokeswoman for a city as it shakes off the grief and tries to heal.I hope so. She is one of the classiest people I?ve ever met in this business. She deserves this.Moving on to Meb Keflezighi, the 38-year-old American who comes from a part of the world that?s in constant turmoil. His family fled his country when he was 12, and he landed in California. His parents valued education, so Keflezighi took advantage of his opportunities and flourished.Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to the United States when he was a bit older. His family fled a strife-torn homeland and landed in Cambridge. He had the same opportunities, one would surmise, as Keflezighi, yet somehow things didn?t go as swimmingly. He blamed the same system that allowed Keflezighi to flourish, and ended up as a mass murderer.With apologies to author Dennis Lehane, whose weekend column that touches on the depth of how pathetic Tsarnaev was (it?s a must-read, and if you Google him, it?s right at the top), this is a jarring comparison of two people, with the same opportunities, with tragically different results.The essence of the Marathon lies not in the stars, but in the ordinary people for whom finishing this race is often like climbing Mt. Everest. Their stories never cease to be amazing. Reading Rich Tenorio?s piece on local runners in Tuesday?s paper, you get a real sense of how much this means to people. At least two runners were physically ill following the race (Flanagan was as well). One more started crying as she crossed the city line from Brookline into Boston.They?re all winners.