Pam Glover, an aerobics instructor at Cedar Hill Rec Centre, was nearing the finish line at the Boston Marathon Monday when she heard the bomb blasts that killed three people and injured more than 100.
“I heard two loud explosions, but thought they were fireworks until there was a blockade of the finish line and police were yelling at us: ‘Run the other way as fast as you can … just get out of the city.’ ”
Amid the terrifying chaos of billowing smoke, shattered glass and bloodstained pavement, Glover’s greatest concern was finding her daughter, Dana Glover, and two of Glover’s friends, in the crowd of fleeing spectators. Feeling cold after her run, Glover met a Boston college student, Erica Pino, who handed over her outer clothing and helped the Victorian track down her daughter and friends.
“[Pino] was my angel,” said Glover. “The people of Boston really reached out.”
More than 30 runners from Vancouver Island registered to run the marathon, including 26 from Victoria.
The Island shares a passion with Boston for running. “The Boston Marathon is a euphoric experience for runners — a bucket-list thing in many lives — and to have this happen to it is incomprehensible and devastating,” said Rob Reid, race director of the GoodLife Victoria Marathon for 18 years, and who has been at the Boston Marathon six times.
The Victoria marathon is an official Boston Marathon qualifier. More than 300 runners from around North America annually stamp their tickets for the fabled Boston event by running the Victoria marathon.
Victoria runner Paddy McCluskey had completed the race Monday and was with his family in a restaurant close to the finish line when the explosions went off, shaking the building. The streets near the finish were packed at the time, he said in an email. “Think Government Street on Canada Day or Boxing Day,” said McCluskey, medical director for the Victoria marathon.
Later, people were crowded around televisions in public places, he said, “and what was a festive atmosphere [had] been completely changed into a city in shock and mourning.”
Gene Wray, of Nanoose Bay, had just finished his run when he heard the explosions, and then saw a swarm of people running his way. All the produce manager at Buy Low Foods in Port Alberni could think was to find cover. “I liken it to a wave of water, but only this was a wave of people coming at me,” said Wray. “You still don’t know what’s going on . . . and people started to push each other down on the street to move, so I basically started to run down the street away from the crowd and found a school bus, and hid behind an orange school bus.”
He said he was unharmed, but felt the percussion of the blasts in his head.
Victoria native Susan Danard barely had time to rest after completing her run when she heard what she thought was some kind of ceremonial gun salute. Just a block from the finish line, she and other runners noticed big clouds of smoke. “What was really weird was no other runners were coming, so that’s when we knew it was something serious,” said Danard, a former Times Colonist reporter who now works for B.C. Hydro on the Lower Mainland. “I was really hoping it was just part of the official race activities.”
Sooke resident Sarah-Mae Pyndus, 25, was enjoying her post-marathon massage about five blocks away when all occupants of the building were suddenly told to leave.
“My heart sank,” she told the Times Colonist, saying her first thought was there had probably been a shooting. “I did not hesitate to leave … I pretty much ran back to the hostel,” she said.
Richard Slocomb, 45, of Victoria had crossed the line and was about three blocks away from the finish when he heard loud noises.
“It sounded like a cannon going off,” he said. “We were far enough away that we heard it and then we saw smoke. Nobody really had any idea at that point as to what actually happened.”
Slocomb said he had a thought it might have been something like a transformer blowing, but soon found out the awful truth.
Back on the Island, family and coaches of runners in Boston scrambled for information.
Jim Finlayson, who coaches Daniel Ethier and Christopher Piche, spent a frantic afternoon tracking them down.
“They are both OK, but shaken,” Finlayson said.
Cathy Noel, general manager of the Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon, said the situation in Boston made her look at her own role with a major community event.
“As a race organizer, it makes you think: ‘What are all the contingency plans? What is the protocol for any type of emergency?’ It’s scary to think of what could happen.”
With a file from Nanaimo Daily News
If you’re worried about a loved one in Boston, you can call Canadian foreign affairs at 1-800-387-3124 or email [email protected]. Canadians in Boston who need emergency assistance can contact the Consulate General at 617-247-5100.
