Eighty-two runners in the 2013 Boston Marathon listed their city of residence as Arlington, Va. Following today’s horrific bombing at the race’s finish line, we’re now starting to hear from some of those Arlington residents who ran the race and escaped the event unscathed.
Arlington resident Pam Howze traveled to Boston with her parents, husband (local political activist Alan Howze) and three children (ages 2, 5 and 7) for the race. Along with a cousin who lives in Boston, they were all at a “T” station about a half mile away from the finish line at the time of the blasts.
“We heard two explosions… we didn’t know what it was,” said Howze, 39, who finished the race with a time of 3:27. She crossed the finish line 30-45 minutes before the bombings.
“I’m happy we’re all safe,” she said. “I’m saddened for everyone who isn’t. It’s very upsetting.”
We asked Howze, who was reached via cell phone as the family drove back to Arlington, whether she would run the race again, in light of the bombing.
“Right now I’m not sure, but I probably would,” she said. “I don’t think I’d bring my whole family, though. ”
Some runners and loved ones of runners have taken to social media to say they’re okay.
“I finished at 3:37:39, and I was in the clothes-changing bus when we heard the two explosions and felt the shock waves,” said Jay Jacob Wind, 63, an Arlington Heights resident and prolific local marathon runner. “It was like 9-11, when the ground shook all the way from the Pentagon to my house three miles away. So I’m safe, but I’m saddened by this tragedy, and I share my sorrow with many millions of others.”
A full list of Arlington runners who registered for the race is available on Wind’s blog.
Taneen Carvell, an Arlington resident and training coach with Potomac River Running, “ran well and [is] safe,” according to the store’s Facebook page.
Reynolds Wilson, an Arlington resident and running enthusiast, crossed the finish line well before the bombings.
“He finished in 3:02 and unaware of the events until after the fact,” we’re told. “He and his family all okay.”
Among other local residents who ran the race are Cindy Walls, the cross country and track coach at Bishop O’Connell High School, and her daughter, Katie. In addition to being a coach, Cindy is also a grief counselor. Katie, who graduated from Bishop O’Connell in 2009, ran track in high school and college.
Neither woman finished the race, which was cut short by the bombings, but their 13 mile time, listed on the Boston Marathon website, suggests that it’s unlikely they would have been near the finish line at the time of the explosions. A school spokesman has not yet responded to an inquiry from ARLnow.com.
Update at 9:10 a.m. — Walls and her daughter were still running the course and did not even hear the blasts, but husband John Walls was across the street from one of the explosions and says he could “feel the heat and smell the sulphur,” according to the Sun Gazette.
Have you heard from an Arlington resident who ran the race or who was a spectator near the finish line? Email us at arlingtonnews [at] gmail.com or let us know in the comments.