Local Runners React To Narrow Escape At Marathon
ROMULUS (WWJ) - Marcy Sacks of Albion had just finished the race in a personal best, when she got a text about the blast. WWJ's Sandra McNeill caught up with the first wave of folks returning to Metro Airport from the Boston Marathon.
Sacks said she finished about an hour and a half before the blast with a personal best time - but now it doesn't mean a thing.
"I was euphoric for half an hour, and texting everybody, you know - it was wonderful. (Now) it is just awful. It is so heartbreaking," Sacks said.
"My sister tweeted me the news," said Sacks. "Of course I didn't believe it - then I saw it on TV at the airport ... shocked."
Asked if she would run the Boston Marathon there again - Sacks was definitive.
"I am qualified for next year and I will be there," she said. "I will absolutely be there."
West Bloomfield runner Tony Targan was one of the participants in Monday's Boston Marathon.
He and a friend finished about 20 minutes before what he calls two explosions that he says were about 20 seconds apart.
He spoke live on WWJ.
"Apparently one of the explosions went off in Marathon Sports store - which is right across from the viewing stands at the finish line," Targan said. "After this happened a number of runners - there were still thousands of runners - that had not finished and I'm not sure where they were diverted to or whether they were able to finish at all ... obviously they could not come into the finish line area."
Harrison Township runner Bruce Seguin had already finished as well. He told WWJ that any suspicious bag along the race route was detonated by authorities, who took no chances of another planted explosion.
"We were making our way from the finish area to our hotel and about twenty minutes after we crossed the finish line we heard two huge blasts about 20 seconds apart," Seguin said. "We were a few blocks from the finish area but within seconds of the blasts we saw crowds of people running in terror from the finish area."
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