Boston Marathon

This is probably going to be somewhat of a rambling post, but I felt like I needed to post something.

When the bombs went off I was about a half mile from the finish line. I heard them go off and immediately thought..fireworks?  But honestly, they did not sound like fireworks. Then I thought, well, there was a Red Sox game maybe they do something wild after those? Runners around me were asking, “what was that noise? What was that??” Obviously, we had no idea what was going on.

Very shortly after multiple cops stopped us and threw up a gate in front of us. That is when people started to freak out. Runners started crying immediately assuming it was a terrorist attack. The cops didn’t tell us anything, probably because they knew as much as we did, all they said was there were explosions near the finish line.

Runners near me were obviously freaked because they all had family and friends down there.

I just saw my parents at mile 25 so I figured there was no way they could have been down there by then. I saw my husband and daughter at mile 23 and they, for all I knew, could have been down at the finish line. I tried calling my husband and parents over and over but the phones weren’t working. I knew my husband was taking the train and for all I knew at the time, bombs went off in the subways so you can imagine there was some panic.

Finally, I got through to him and he was on the train and the train was stopped and everyone was evacuated. So my whole family was safe.

We still didn’t really know what was going on. A woman near us told us transformers exploded near the finish line so I was somewhat relieved it wasn’t bombs. My dad ended up asking a National Guard solider and he was the one who told us that they were actually bombs. All we knew at that point was we needed to get out of there.

 

So, first of all, thank God my family and friends are all safe. That being said, I am so disgusted and upset about what happened at the race. It’s one of those life events that is impossible to understand so it leads to frustration which leads to tears. This magnificent event was just ruined…completely ruined…changed people’s lives forever and why? We have no idea. I just don’t understand.

I’ve read articles where some people say they’ve lost hope in humanity. I haven’t. For every sick individual there is out there, there are thousands of others who care. You can see that in the images that are coming out now after the bombs went off. People helping people. People running towards the chaos to help others get up, people donating blood, acting selflessly…it’s pretty amazing.

 

Not sure what else to say except my thoughts are with all the victims.