This trip to Boston was definitely one that I’ll remember forever, unfortunately. Patriots day 2013, the day of the Boston Marathon, now marks one scary episode. The day started off well! I got up with Tiffany and two of her roomates who were running the marathon, ate breakfast, and headed to a park where buses will shuttle runners to the start line. They got on the bus and I drove Tiffany's car back to her house, showered, grabbed some water and granola bars for the day and headed to mile marker 20 with Tiffany's other roomate to meet up with a group of friends who they Cross Fit with. We watched and cheered for the wheelchairs, elite runners, and the rest of the runners waiting for Tiffany to come by so I could hop in with her and support her for the last 6 miles of the race. Tiffany was running unusually slow for her normal pace, I was worried. But, finally she came around the corner with a big smile on her face. She wasn't having a good race day and decided to take it easy and have fun. The crowds were awesome like always! We got to 23 miles and noticed a lady (runner) in her mid-40's who was in the middle of the street waving her arms around. When we got closer we heard her say "They stopped the race, stop running, do go further, a bomb went off at the finish". Everyone kept running. Tiffany and I stopped for a second and tried to make sense of things. There were soldiers and police men nearby who hadn't said anything to the runners, they just stood there like everything was normal. So, Tiffany and I thought, this lady is crazy...she probally heard a rumor or wrong info and She's just trying to cause some drama... We kept running, saw another soldier and stopped to ask him if something was going on. He said "there was an explosion, at the finish, people were hurt, but it's nothing to worry about." We asked him what kind of explosion? He said "a grill or something". Tiffany and I were pretty scared to learn that people got hurt. We continued to run, as everyone else did and again went by many soldiers and Boston police and not one of them seemed like they had a clue what was going on, they just stood there and watched the race. We reached 25.5 miles and I noticed a cluster of runners about a quarter mile ahead just stopped. I said to Tiffany “I don’t want to go any further, I don’t like what I see up ahead, something is not right” We stoped running and walked slowly for a bit. We look around and observe, again trying to make sense of things. There was a Medical tent nearby and they had foil blankets, I grabbed one for Tiffany and grabbed her some water – she wasn’t feeling great at all aside from the emotional time we were experiencing.We heard more ambulances, police cars and SWAT cars. We saw people start coming back from the crowd of people ahead toward the 25.5 mile area in tears and overwhelmed for the fact that they were scared something serious was happening, also for the fact that they ran 25.5+ miles and couldn’t finish their 26.2 miles (marathon) they trained so hard for, and that they are left with nothing but what they brought with them for their marathon. Runners checked their belongs prior to the start line, and when they finish the race they can retrieve it. Tiffany’s plan was to have some money in her bag for a cab ride home, so she had nothing on her. Her roommates and friends who were running the marathon had other arrangements because they were in a different wave, or they were meeting up with family. Luckily I had brought my iPhone with me when I jumped in with Tiffany. Normally I don’t run with my phone, but, I had a feeling that I should just in case. Luckily, one of Tiffany’s roommates had just purchased an arm band that she let me borrow for the run,which made my decision to take it much easier, I probably wouldn’t have ended up taking it if I had to hold on to it. My battery was on red (low), but I wasable to text my husband to let him know we were safe. I think my text was the first he had heard of the event (he was at work). As I started typing my text to him, my phone was blowing up with texts from friends who had heard something and knew that I was in Boston. I finished my text to Will, and then was able to answer two other texts and my phone shut off. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew we were OK before who knows how long it would be until I was able to communicate with anyone. Thankfully, Will was able to spread the news as much as he could with posts to facebook and text messages. Tiffany and I really weren’t sure what to do. Do we stick around and wait for direction, or do we try to find a way home? Do we try to get on the subway, or do we take a cab and tell the cab driver we have no money? The public transportation was closed in the area, so either way we’d have to walk quite a ways to get somewhere. We ended up walking toward the subway, we walked with someone who was trying to get to the airport, and his phone still worked, so he was able to help us figure out how to get there by using the map on his phone. We finally reached the subway and were able to chat with the attendant there, she waved us through for free when she saw Tiffany had her marathon foil and obviously we had nothing else with us. We got onto the subway, learned that where we need to get off and hop back on a different subway was closed…so we got off at another location and walked a bit, got on the subway again and ran into a family of 6 who realized that Tiffany was upset. They were going in our direction, so we stuck with them and they helped us navigate. This group was super sweet, I instantly felt better that we were with good people and they would really help us if we were stuck. One of the girls (high school age) was asking Tiffany how she trained for a marathon, and offered an extra fleece to her. A father and a son (college sophomore?) were walking behind us and the son said “miss, here, you must be freezing” and handed me his hooded sweatshirt. We were surrounded by Angels! The weather was nice, in the sun, but pretty chilly walking next to buildings that shaded the sun from us. Plus, the sweat from running really cools you off. We were even able to use their phones – Tiffany called her dad and I called Will to let them know we were OK. We finally got to Tiffany's house around 6:30pm. Poor girl had to walk 4 more miles after she ran 25.5 miles. Even I was tired and hungry; I can’t imagine how she was feeling. She was a trooper and my hero!
I’m glad Tiffany had a bad race, otherwise she would have been closer to the explosion. I’m also happy that Tiffany’s family didn’t come this year, they would have been waiting for her at the finish line. I’m glad I ran the end of the marathon with her, otherwise Tiffany would have been by herself at the end. Things happen how they’re supposed to, for a reason, and I’m thankful for how things panned out for us on this day. I'm also happy to learn that a Kalamazoo friend, also someone I coach Girls On the Run with traveled with her family and ran the marathon this year (her first time running the Boston Marathon) are also safe and back home in Michigan.
Some pics I was able to capture during the 6 mi run to the finish:
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| Accidental photo: Sitting on curb waiting at 25.5 miles. Notice the helicopter in the sky. |
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| Accidential photo: Sitting on curb wiating at 25.5 miles; our shoes. |
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| Purposful photo: at 24ish miles, trying to capture one ambulance of many that were going by during the race. |
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| Purposful photo: Tiffany (in pink) at 24ish miles |
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| Day before the marathon, outside the expo to pick up bib numbers. |
