Residents return safely from tragedy at Boston Marathon

As Cecile Franklin rounded the last corner of this year’s Boston Marathon, she was abruptly stopped. With about a mile to go, she and runners around her found themselves face-to-face with a “phalanx of Boston police officers.”

“Walk back, walk back,” was all that police shouted, she said. So, she did as she was instructed.

Officers moved her group away from the finish line, and after two blocks they were halted there and blockaded.

“We knew nothing, and that was a good thing,” Franklin said. “I just remember everybody thinking something bad must have happened. We just didn’t know what.”

At that time, approximately 4:30 p.m. on April 15, Franklin was one mile from the site of two explosions that killed three and injured more than 170. Both were caused by bombs placed near the Marathon finish line, somewhere in between her and her friend, Kenneth Harkless.

Harkless finished the race approximately 40 minutes before the bombs detonated and was already on a train back to his hotel. He had waited for his friends, other runners from the Birmingham area, at the finish line before the cold began to set in and he elected to make his way toward the subway.

“At that point, I didn’t have a (cell phone) signal,” said Harkless, 61, student assistance counselor at Mountain Brook High School. “But when I changed lines, I got my clothes out of my bag and noticed I had two (text) messages.”

The first he paid no mind to, he said. “Are you ok?” it read, which he assumed was in reference to the toll of running the race. The second was more direct. “Are you ok?” it also read, “I heard there’s been an explosion.”

“By the time I got back to my hotel, I probably had 20 messages,” he said. “I turned on the TV and realized the tragic nature of what had taken place and the gravity of people’s concern for me. Over the next while, I probably received 80 messages.”

On the city streets, the cold  also set in on Franklin. She had chosen not to wear a watch for the Marathon, electing this year to focus on the fun of the event and the atmosphere of the city instead of her pace and time. She said she had no idea how long she waited in the cold, but it was hours before she was taken to pick up her things and meet her son.

As soon as she was able, she called her husband. He told her of the disaster that had taken place but a breath from her. Franklin said she fell apart.

“Once I found out what happened, I broke down started crying,” she said.

After talking to her husband and mother, Harkless was the next person Franklin called. She told him she was both cold and stuck where she was.

“We had no water, and I was very tired,” she added. “I had been on my feet for 28 miles and, after finally getting to where our bags were checked, they wouldn’t let us leave. Everybody around me had the same kind of confused, devastated emotional reaction. Can’t even image what it was like for the people at bomb site.”

Franklin described the scene as “like a war zone,” but praised the people of Boston, who showed no pause in offering to help.

“I was standing there, shivering,” she said. “A woman brought me the bedspread off her bed and said, ‘Here, sweetie. You have to get warm.'”

She added that was one reason why the Boston Marathon was so special to her and many other runners. Besides being the “Super Bowl” of running competitions – the oldest and most competitive in the nation – she estimated more than 1 million Boston residents come out to the course to cheer on participants. She said she wouldn’t hesitate to take part in the event again.

“There’s no fear. None at all,” she said. “I don’t know of anyone who is a runner and runs the way we all run (in Birmingham) who would let something like this prevent them from participating in a sport that does so much good.”

Harkless had a similar sentiment.

“I not only think I’ll go back, I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I detest people trying to hold me hostage with fear.”

Running organizations around the Birmingham area confirmed that no area residents participating or attending the marathon were injured in the blast. Please send notice of any local efforts organized to support victims of the bombing or the City of Boston to jeff@280living.com.