April 15th, 2013; Finish Line

Item Information

Title:
April 15th, 2013; Finish Line
Creator:
Kuo, Carol
Date:
April 15, 2013
Format:
Documents
Genre:
texts (documents)
Location:
Northeastern University Library
Collection (local):
Our Marathon
Series:
Public submissions
Subjects:
Boston Marathon Bombing, Boston, Mass., 2013
Places:
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Link to Item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20264456
Terms of Use:
Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/ Requests for permission to publish material should be addressed to Northeastern University Library's Digital Scholarship Group (dsg@neu.edu).
Contact host institution for more information.
Language:
English
Notes:
Submission text: My family has volunteered for many years to work at the Boston Marathon, usually at the 20 mile mark. Last year the volunteer position was phased out so my daughter and I decided to watch the finish on Boylston Street, and meet my husband later in the day. He was working at the Finish Line for the entire race, as a technical official. My daughter and I spent lots of time cheering runners and taking pictures from various points along Boylston Street. About 2:40 PM, we decided to look for my husband at the Finish Line to see what he was doing. We walked along Boylston Street in front of Marathon Sports and stopped directly in front of the railings, behind the street fences and flags. My daughter took a picture of the Finish Line Display Clock. It said 4:06:29, the actual running time. The time on my watch was 2:46 PM. Because we were unable to see my husband due to the flags and the blue officials tent, we moved about 25 feet up the sidewalk towards Exeter Street. We were standing along the street fences directly in front of the Lenscrafter Store next to Marathon Sports. We watched runners and looked for my husband for the next few minutes. Everything seemed normal; triumphant runners, happy, cheering people, families with children, couples strolling around. Suddenly a huge blast went off, deafening us both and nearly knocking us over. We spun around toward the left, extremely frightened, holding our ears in pain, and saw a woman in gray clothing lying down on the ground by the Marathon Sports railing. There was smoke everywhere, people running. My first thought was that there had been a gas explosion and that buildings might fall on us. I said to my daughter "we have to go, run as fast as you can." I grabbed my daughter, we linked arms and ran toward Exeter Street. As we got to the corner, we saw another explosion further up Boylston Street and I knew it was a terrorist attack, not a gas explosion. We ran to Newbury Street and stopped. There were many people running and crying and a woman down on the ground bleeding. We ran to see if we could help. We saw ambulances headed toward Boylston Street. I tried to call my husband on my cell phone but he didn't answer. I knew we had to go back to the Finish Line to look for him, so we ran down Newbury Street, took a right on Dartmouth and got to the Finish Line area. We saw people being taken out on stretchers.. a woman.. a man. We saw police and medics and Marathon volunteers everywhere. We searched desperately for my husband but were not allowed to enter Boylston Street. We were crying and screaming his name. Two volunteers came to help us look and then suddenly we saw my husband. He came to us very shaken, and the three of us ran toward the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel, where we spent the next several hours in lock down, calling family and friends to tell them we were alright. My hearing was affected; I had ringing and popping in my ears for months and lost some hearing in my left ear but slowly it is getting better. To this day, the three of us are still very emotional about the Marathon Events and by the number of injured people. The stories about the dead and injured affected us for many months and still do. I spent a lot of time wondering what would have happened if we had not moved up the street, away from the bomb. I wondered why we were spared terrible injury. For months I had dreams about the Marathon bombing. We feel so grateful to be alive and proud to be living in Boston. My husband will be working again as a technical official at the Finish Line on Marathon Day; I am volunteering at the BAA 5K Race on the Saturday before the Marathon. On April 21st, I will be at the Finish Line, in front of Marathon Sports on Boylston Street watching and supporting the runners. My daughter will watch this year from Coolidge Corner. After last years Marathon, her boyfriend proposed to her and today they are married and expecting their first baby on Memorial Day. I get chills thinking about what might have been on April 15th, 2013.
Crowdsourced submission originally received via the Our Marathon "Share Your Story" page.
Notes (historical):
Contributor Name: Carol Kuo; Contributor Age: 66; Contributor Race: caucasian; Contributor Gender: female; Current Location: 02445