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Re: Boston - One Year Ago

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 10:45 pm
by legsbestill
Thank you for bumping this remarkable thread which I would otherwise not have had the pleasure of reading.

Re: Boston - One Year Ago

Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:32 am
by leggo_my_legs
Steve, this is amazing. Words are failing me. I'm glad that you weren't physically injured in the bombing. Bombs are terrifying for their unpredictability and catastrophic injuries. What courage to go back and run again!

Re: Boston - One Year Ago

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 4:53 pm
by peanut1
Steve,
This is the first time reading this thread. All I've got to say is WOW! Thank you so much for sharing this.

Kathy

Re: Boston - One Year Ago

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 10:42 pm
by Yankiwi
I'd like to see this thread bumped every year. Bostonians, who have always supported their marathon, deserve recognition for the way they rallied after the bombing and still do. Because I lived across the river in Cambridge for seven years I have always followed the race and read everything I could about the bombing and aftermath. Recently I saw the movie Patriots Day and think except for some super firepower in the Watertown shootout the movie was true to the events. It also showed (as much as possible in a film) the reality of a bombing. Statistics such as three people dead and at least 264 injured don't show the extent of the injuries—limbs blown off etc. I had to look away from the screen at times. All of the characters except the main one are based on actual people. It isn't a movie to be enjoyed but a very powerful one, well worth seeing.

Re: Boston - One Year Ago

Posted: Fri Apr 21, 2017 11:36 pm
by Rustsmith
Yankiwi, I understand that the film is supposed to be good. But I refuse to go see it. Partly because I do not wish to relive the experience as last Monday was very emotional for me even though it has been 4 years now. And partly because I believe that the real heros that day were the volunteer doctors in the marathon medical tent as well as the Army Reservists who were standing just outside. The army guys all had the military first aid equipment for treating IED injuries and many of the volunteer doctors were ER doctors, many of whom had Army Reserve experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also don't need to be reminded of the sight to the two women being wheeled right past me with such severe lower leg injuries that I am confidant that they were among the amputees. If the doctors had not been working on those with injuries within 2 minutes and if the Army had not been there with their equipment, the loss of life would have been much greater.

And since you mentioned living in Cambridge, one of my friends had to walk about 5 miles back to her hotel in Cambridge after running the race. At the time, she thought that she was fleeing to safety across the river. Then when they "caught" the two bombers, she realized that she was probably walking across the bridge at the same time as "those two idiots". When I saw her the following Sunday, she was almost shaking with a combination of fear and fury at the thought.

Two other tidbits of interest, the first is that every single runner that I knew who ran in 2013 ran again in 2014. For all of us, it was a foregone conclusion that we were going back. And I am not talking about one or two runners, it was dozens. So much so that they had to increase the field from 27,000 in 2013 to 36,000 in 2014.

The second bit of useless trivia is that the surviving bomber is in a prison that is only about 40 miles west of where I now live. A friend who is a retired US Marshall told me that the high risk prisoners at SuperMax are housed under ground and only get to see daylight for one hour per week (I think that I have that right) and then they only allow one of them out at a time.

Re: Boston - One Year Ago

Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 9:03 am
by Yankiwi
Steve, the movie isn't for those who lived the bombing. I know you don't need or want to relive the experience.
I wonder what percentage of total runners ran again in 2014? Seeing the numbers it must have been most of them. I know the Boston Marathon has always been special to runners and locals since it started in 1897—the first marathon after the revival at the modern Olympics.
Another little tidbit—a Kiwi woman illegally ran the Boston Marathon 50 years ago and again last week. Here is a link to a column about her. http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/90477164/revolutionary-runner-kathrine-switzer-returns-to-boston-50-years-on

Re: Boston - One Year Ago

Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 7:59 am
by badnights
I remember Katherine Switzer from when I was a kid! Good article.