This is a long story you may not want to read it all but I want to have it for my information. If you want to read from where we heard about the bombs go to the part in bold. Tom is also writing his version of the story. It may be very similar since we he ran with me. But he is usually better with words and I think he is adding the pics to his. He is at tom.fastrunningblog.com So much has happened. Sunday we went to the expo pick up our packets went to dinner it was highly organized. We also went to the finish line to soak up some of the excitement and take pictures. At the finish line area there was a lady from the Boston Herald who interviewed us and took pictures. It was kind of fun feeling like a celebrity! I'm not sure if she decided to use our interview or not but she did like our story of being married for 26 years and running 26.2 miles together in Boston. Monday morning we woke up from a very restful nights sleep. Even though the official race didn't start until 10 o'clock and the wave we were in didn't start until 10:40 we had to be out early to take the shuttle from the hotel to the buses. It takes a while and a great deal of organization to transport 27,000 people to the start line.
We were thrilled to walk out to near perfect running weather! The day before had been quite chilly and windy.
When we got to the buses we realized the lines went all over the place snaking back and forth throughout the area. We were able to visit with two ladies, one named Kay and one Diana, during our line wait. m Meeting them and sharing stories helped the line be quite enjoyable and help kick up the excitement level even more! Tom mentioned somewhere along there that our only obstacle between us and the finish line was getting safely to the starting line. The bus ride took forever! Over an hour! I felt like he was taking us to Timbuktu. They must have had to go a round about way because a lot of it was on highway where we were going fast. Anyway we finally made it to athletes village. This is where Tom had stood in terrible rain when he ran in 2007. We were again very grateful for the perfect weather! We decided to get into one of the long porta potty lines. We had a chance to visit and share more stories and up the excitement even more! While standing there in the line they asked everyone to take a moment of silence for the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings. I didn't think they could get that many people to realize what was going on and actually get silence. But they did and it was amazing.
After the POP we went to find a spot to sit it when I heard my name being called. I was so happy to see my friend Sarah Compas from Mapleton! We snapped a few pics and wished each other the best. After talking to Sarah we found an empty spot on the grass to do our final preparations.... writing our names all over us! Gotta let the crowds know our names! We took one last chance for the porta potties and then tossed the bags on the bus and started the walk to the start line. As we were walking I noticed an older person with a St George marathon shirt I said, "Hey girl! Way to go! Did you qualify in St George?" It was at that time I realized the "hey girl" was actually a guy! oops How embarrassing! Tom and I ran off laughing like kids. We put our bags on the bus.Again we were impressed with a highly organized system! We continued to corrals. In front of a house on the way to the corrals we were given the first of many free things. People had set up a table with free sunscreen and a few other things we might need. We had been wishing we had remembered sunscreen so we hurried and slapped some on. With all of the people it was hard to get up to corral #2 so we started out in #3,( that is one of the things that kept us a little further from danger later in a race.) Finally we are on our way to running the Boston Marathon! In our mind there was only a great time between us and the finish line! We had come to run this as an enjoyable victory lap. We wanted to run it easy and soak in the whole experience! That is another thing that kept us from being in danger at the end. We went without any kind of Gu or other typical race help. We decided to just go off of things provided to us by strangers along the way. The race doesn't actually provide anything except Gatorade and water. I think they know the crowds take care of us. Here is a list of some of the things I remember getting and being offered... licorice, Oreos, homemade chocolate chip cookies, Swedish Fish, Fig Newtons, water, Otter Pops, jelly beans, oranges, bananas, ice, candy bars, tissues, water, baby wipes, paper towels, Starburst and Jolly Ranchers. We were also offered burgers, bratwursts and beer but didn't take people up on them. On a normal marathon I would never dare to try all those different things! But since we were out for fun we went for it. I never even had to visit a porta potty along the way which is crazy with all those new foods I usually don't eat on a run. The crowds were all lots of fun. We came to the town and college of Wellesley. That was a fun crowd but the best was still to come! After Wellesley there was a little lull in the crowds and it gave Tom and I time to think about my brother Kevin. Part of this run was dedicated to him. As we were going along there we all of a sudden heard everyone cheering for Kevin! There happened to be a guy named Kevin by us there and we went past his friends at the same time is him. It was crazy! We called that our Kevin mile and I got a little choked up at that time. I took a picture of that Kevin and told him we were running for Kevin and that him and his friends had helped us out. We were excited to see a row of LDS missionaries cheering! We went over and chatted with them for a bit and took some pictures. Most of them were from Utah I think one or two from Idaho. Someone with them actually had a sign that was cheering for Kim so we got a picture of them holding that for me. We also stopped to take pictures with a few other folks with Kim and Tom signs. Just a few more blessed things slowed us to the finish line. Heartbreak Hill came along, however there were so many hills I'm not quite sure which one was actually the Heartbreak Hill. I didn't mind the up hills though and it was fun to be running when many others were walking. Lots of people along there telling us we were looking great! Boston College was our favorite group! I felt like a total rock star! Everyone screaming my name and trying to reach out so I would touch their hands. I totally felt like they were all there just for me! I'm sure I looked like a smilin' fool as I ran past them with my hand out to all the high fives! Tom was right behind me doing the same thing! I wish I had a picture of us with those silly grins on our faces. What a rush! A while after that I overheard a runner by us who was on her cell phone. I heard her say something about an explosion and wanting to finish the race. Tom and I wondered if someone she knew had an explosion at their work or something... something that would have happened as an accident not something intentional. After awhile we saw policeman with very concerned looks listening intently to the radios. We also noticed the demeanor of the crowds change. It wasn't all the excitement anymore. Then someone told us there had been two explosions at the finish line. We're thinking we were between miles 23 and 24 when it actually happened. Since we were not concerned about our time we had decided to leave our watches at home. So we really had no idea on time. It was strange at that time because we didn't know much but all of a sudden all of the police left on bikes toward the finish line. We knew they wouldn't let us cross the finish line if there was danger but now there was no one around to get information. So we all kept running. I remember saying to Tom "I hope we are not all being like lambs to the slaughter". But I also knew that they would keep us from danger. 1/2 mile from the finish everyone was stopping us in telling us we could not go on any further. It was just other runners and crowds telling us. Some of the runners at that point to no clue anything was going on. There was a lot of confusion. We had all came to cross that finish line and we were so close! An older gentleman came running through all the stopped people and said, "Excuse me! There is a race going on here!" We had to inform him of the bombs and let him know our race was over. He bent over and started to sob. We tried to comfort him and he told us his story. He pulled out a small plastic bag with ashes. As he sobbed he told us that this was his brother-in-law. They had ran Boston several times together. This time he brought three small bags of ashes to spread at his brother in law's three favorite places along the course. One with the Wellesley girls, one at the top of Heartbreak Hill and this last one was for the finish line. He cried, we listened, I cried, he thanked us for listening we all grew close as strangers. Now the crowd around us is growing with more runners being stopped. It was about 43 degrees so we were all getting cold. We all needed the assistance that is usually there for you at the end of a marathon. We needed warmth, drink and food. Some needed medical help. We didn't have access to our bags with a warm clothes or anything. I was shivering pretty hard and really in need of a drink. Little angel started showing up all around us. People had gone to stores and homes in the area and found garbage bags to help warm us. They were also finding different ways to share water. One guy had a bag of chips was sharing them with everyone. Strangers were giving their coats and blankets to others. No one was being selfish...everyone was thinking of others. This is what we were able to see while the world was seeing the horror of the explosions over and over on TV. We were very concerned that family and friends were watching things and wondering how we were doing. My cell phone was dead because I had been taking pictures so I tryed to use other people's phones. But nothing was going through. We thought it was because too many people were trying to call. But we found out later that they had shut down all the cell towers in case cell phones were being used to detonate bombs. Eventually someone with a bull horn told us they were bringing buses in for us to sit in to get warm. They couldn't take us anywhere because there was too much confusion and transportation was shut down. It was such a relief to get in a warm bus. After a while on the bus they told us they were going to take us somewhere else away from the confusion. We realized that where they were taking us was further from our hotel. We wouldn't want to be stuck there any more than where we were at the moment. So we had them let us off and point us toward our hotel and we walked mile and a half or so back to there. Now we could plug our phone in and let our loved ones know we were is safe. As we got power all of the texts and phone messages started showing up on the screen. It was amazing to see all the love and concern that was coming our way. There was no way we could read and listen to everything and respond to it all. We finally got a hold of immediate family and had them help spread the word. Facebook was definitely a great way to help tell people too! We turned on the TV and were glued to it like everyone else probably was. It was then we started realizing the whole picture. We knew it was bad because we had seen so many ambulances. We were seeing the pictures that the world has been seeing for a few hours. We had been told to stay in and not go places especially in crowds. So everyone who had planned to go places to eat were now stuck at hotels. Luckily there was a restaurant there but there were so many people to feed we were not able to eat until 8:30 p.m. We had eaten nothing since the stuff given to us in the race. We were pretty hungry! We were so grateful to sit down to eat and have a small loaf of bread brought in for us while we waited for our meal. We wore our official Boston Marathon jackets the rest of the time in Boston and on our return home. There is an extra special bond with everyone who had been a runner. Seeing the shirt, jacket and medals all over kind of felt healing. Tuesday we were able to do a lot of walking around the city. First of all we went to pick up our bags. There was media set up all over the place. Several people asked us questions and took our pictures. As we walked through the Freedom Trail people would stop us and thank us and tell us they are happy we are safe. Locals kept asking us if we would ever run again and if it would ever come to Boston again. the answer to both of those questions is a great big YES. we will do everything we can to be in Boston for the marathon next year!
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