Crime & Safety

'The Whole City Was in Chaos': Eastside Runners React to Boston Explosions

"Sirens, hysterical people crying, confusion and fear were everywhere," Redmond resident Ben Bigglestone told Patch.

Update, 6 p.m. Monday: Redmond resident Ben Bigglestone was a few blocks from the finish line of the Boston Marathon when two explosions hit the area on Monday.

Bigglestone owns Vo2Multisport, a Redmond-based triathlon coaching company. He was at the race to cheer on his partner Katie Leland, a Bellevue resident and first-time Boston Marathon participant.

As soon as Leland finished the race, she and Bigglestone went back to the Colonnade Boston Hotel to get ready for a return flight home to Seattle.

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"Moments before the explosion, I was waiting outside the Prudential Center to reunite with Katie after her race," Bigglestone told Patch via email. "Had she not rushed to get out of the finish area to meet me...then I fear we may have been caught up in the ensuing carnage."

As Bigglestone and Leland were leaving the hotel, a concierge advised them of what was going on outside.

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"The whole city was in chaos, and the train system also got shut down," Bigglestone said. "Sirens, hysterical people crying, confusion and fear were everywhere."

Bigglestone and Leland are now staying another night at their hotel and planning to catch a flight home on Tuesday.

In the moments before the explosions, Bigglestone, who has raced all over the world, said he was thinking about adding the Boston Marathon to his list of completed events.

"I was thinking I must come and do this race...and experience the history and atmosphere," he said. "Then this happens, and everyone's mood was shattered.

"It went from fun, excitement and high energy to fear and chaos in an instant."

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Original post: Eastside racing enthusiasts are continuing to wait for word from local runners who participated in today's Boston Marathon.

Roger Michel of 4th Dimension Racing, which puts on the annual Lake Sammamish Half Marathon, said about two dozen participants from that race were competing in Boston today. He's heard from all but one of the runners he knows personally, with many friends posting updates on Facebook to say they're OK.

“It’s very, very shocking,” he said of the two explosions that took place earlier today at the marathon's finish line. “This is such a friendly community...I just feel really sad for (those) that did get hurt.”

Len Fedore, owner of Everyday Athlete in Kirkland, said he knows of about a half-dozen customers who were planning on racing. Like Michel, however, Fedore said most of the runners he knows personally were probably through the finish line by the time the explosions took place.

"We were just looking up (local runners in the list) to see, but we figured they would have be done—unless they came back to watch others finish," he said. "It sounds like most of the people injured were spectators."

Michel, a Redmond resident, said many running groups from around the Eastside are using social media to confirm their participants are OK.

Michel has never ran the Boston Marathon before but recently decided he wanted to try to qualify—a resolution he plans on sticking to in spite of what's transpired today.

"The sad part about this is that these events are usually safest after something horrible like this happens,” he said.

—Greg Johnston contributed to this report.


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