Region Roundup: Local Residents Experience Marathon Bombing

Norton Woman: ‘We Are Lucky to Be Alive’

A Norton mother who was close to the explosions at the Boston Marathon Monday said she is lucky to be alive.

"Me, my husband Kevin and my daughter Rachael were at the finish line 50 feet from the explosion, we saw our friend Mike Everson go by and were waiting with our video camera on for our other Norton friends," Nancy Weber told Norton Patch in an email. "I have the explosion on video and our reaction, I screamed run to my daughter and you can see all the feet and chaos. It was horrific! we are so lucky to be alive!"

Weber told the Boston Herald that she knew it was some kind of terrorist attack.

Easton Runner: ‘God was With Me’

Just one half mile from finishing his first Boston Marathon, 25.7 miles into a 26.2 mile trek, Bobby O'Donnell III of Easton was stopped short of finishing, like so many other runners on Monday afternoon.

The 117th running of the Boston Marathon came to a halt at 2:50 p.m. April 15 when two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing at least three and injuring well over 100 more, according to CBS Boston.

Following the explosions, police and race officials soon started stopping the runners, O'Donnell, a 2012 graduate of Oliver Ames, and a 19-year-old freshman at St. Anslem College, said.

"I was [half a mile] away from finishing when the explosion happened and my family was in the grandstands at the finish line and saw and felt the blast," he recalled.

Family of Mansfield Marathon Runner Fortunate to Escape Injury

If Marsha Whitman was a few minutes slower or if her family stayed in the stands, the Mansfield resident’s day at the Boston Marathon could have been a lot more tragic.

Crossing the finish line with a time of 3:46:42 at 3:32 p.m., Whitman was able to finish the race about 18 minutes before the first explosion went off near the finish line on Boylston St. She was the 13,015th person to cross the line and only a little more than 4,500 runner make it to the finish line after her.

Shortly after completing the marathon, Whitman was leaving the athletes' area to regroup with her family in the family meeting area on St. James Ave. when the explosions began to go off behind her.

“When the first explosion went off, the person in front of me asked the police officer at the exit what it was. He speculated that it was from a construction site close by,” Whitman said. “When the second explosion went off, I turned to him and asked what they were saying. He said ‘They’re calling for help.’”

Foxborough Resident: ‘I Should Have Crossed the Finish Line’ When Marathon Bombs Went Off

Foxborough’s Alyssa Solomon recounts first marathon experience, including a fateful stop at Mile 12 that prevented her from crossing the finish line on Boylston Street when the two deadly bombs went off Monday.

For 25 miles, Solomon was on the ultimate runner’s high with her goal in sight … and then she approached Boylston Street.

Solomon was nearing the finish line shortly after 3:10 p.m. – roughly 20 minutes after two deadly bombs exploded on Boylston Street.

“I was probably less than a half-mile away [from the finish line] and had no idea what was going on because I had my headphones on and could only hear people screaming my name,” Solomon said.

As the Foxborough High School graduate continued towards the finish line she began to realize something was wrong.

“I started seeing people screaming and running and was wondering what was going on,” Solomon said. “Cops were pushing me and I stopped. When I stopped I couldn’t walk and couldn’t move. I didn’t know anyone around me and had no idea what was going on.”

Then all of a sudden it all set in.

“Someone started yelling, “A bomb, a bomb,” Solomon said. … “I got one call [before the cell phone service went off] and it was my sister screaming at the top of her lungs, ‘You’re going to die.’ She was screaming.”

The first-year marathoner described the scene as “chaotic,” “confusing” and “all of a sudden.”

“I didn’t realize how severe everything was because I couldn’t see everything from where I was but I knew something was going on,” Solomon said.

Solomon said she should have been crossing the finish line right around the time the bombs went off at Copley Square but a bathroom stop at Mile 12 slowed her time.

“For me, [with my personal time], I should have been there [at the finish line], which is scary but I had to go to the bathroom at Mile 12,” Solomon said. “So I stopped to go to the bathroom and everyone I know was freaking out because based on my time and [BAA] tracking I should have been at the finish line [when the bombs went off]. That’s when all the cell phone reception went off.”

With no cell phone service during the height of Monday’s tragedy Solomon said she had received about 200 missed calls and text messages, many of which she had not been able to respond to as of Tuesday afternoon.

“At that point [of the explosions] my [running] time had said I should have crossed the finish line so everyone who was tracking me was calling me and texting me,” Solomon said.