How friends saved my life at the 2013 Boston Marathon.
There will be thousands of “close call” stories from today’s Boston Marathon and here’s mine. I had knee surgery (torn meniscus) in January. Recovery has been slow and painful, so while the annual running of the Boston Marathon typically means I run for time, today I opted to run for fun. If you saw me out there or look at the pics on my Facebook page (see more pics below), you’ll see that I had SO MUCH FUN over the first 25.5 miles. As I was cruising into Kenmore Square, high-fiving literally hundreds of spectators, the marathon was turning into a nightmare at the finish line. My friend Stephen and his wife Jennifer flagged me down as I approached Mass Ave, but they were not smiling. They told me there were explosions near Marathon Sports.
You all know the rest of the tragic details. What you don’t know is that I was supposed to be showering at Marathon Sports right around that time. Yesterday afternoon, I’d spent half an hour in the store, a good part of that time catching up with my friend Shane, the store manager. Shane graciously offered to let me shower there after I finished, with an estimated finishing time of 3.5-4 hours and an ETA at the store of 2:30-3:00pm. The explosions occurred at 2:50pm.
Since I’d stopped to get pictures with many friends along the course over today’s final miles, I was still about a mile away as the explosions occurred. Thanks to friends, I was 8-9 minutes from the finish, maybe ~20-25 mins from walking into the store. To each and every one of you who got my attention today and inspired me to stop for a moment and get a picture together, I thank you more than these few words can possibly express. Today was a tragic day for so many, but thanks to all of you, I was safely away from the tragedy.
Thank you, friends – you might’ve saved my life today.
Wellesley
Newton
Brookline & Boston
