It was her third full marathon and Pam Carr ran it fast enough to possibly save her life.
Carr finished today’s Boston Marathon in 3:35:37. Less than 15 minutes later, there was an explosion at the finish line.
“In my mind, I was like ‘this is a middle of a race, why are they doing that (shooting a starting gun)?’ Carr said. “Then I saw smoke.”
Seconds later, she saw another explosion.
Carr says she was waiting in line to receive a blanket approximately 75 to 100 yards away from the second of the two blasts that police say injured more than 100 people and killed at least two.
“At that point I knew something was wrong, but you’re never thinking that bombs are going off.”
She didn’t know for sure until half an hour later.
“It was probably 15 to 30 minutes later that people were saying it was a bomb,” Carr says. “I mean, you were hearing things like that for probably 15 minutes before that. It doesn’t take long to figure out it was a bomb when you see firetrucks and emergency personal rushing to the scene.”
According to the OA-News, Carr was one of seven people from the Auburn-Opelika area who ran today’s marathon. All were unharmed.
Carr says she managed to reconnect with her husband Scott, Auburn’s Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Affairs, 10 or 15 minutes after the blasts.
“We learned from police that the subway was closed, and that was kind of our main transportation. We had to get out the map to figure out how to walk back to our hotel.”
After walking “two or three miles,” they were able to catch a bus the remainder of the way back to their hotel in Newton, seven miles west of downtown Boston, which is where Carr has been watching the news and recovering, physically and emotionally, ever since. She’s not sure when they’ll be able to return to Auburn and their four-year-old daughter. They arrived in Boston on Friday.
“We were supposed to fly out tomorrow morning,” she says. “They’re saying on TV that Logan Airport is still open but to expect delays.”
While she waits, she says she’ll be busy on Facebook letting friends and family know she’s alive.
“I’m thankful to God that we’re OK. I’m just praying for the people that are hurting, and for the families of those that are hurting or dead,” she says.
“I can’t make sense of why someone would want to do that.”
…
Keep Reading:
* Selena Roberts, Auburn student journalist
* Apple CEO Tim Cook huge Auburn fan even in high school
* Shug Jordan’s houndstooth hat is prized possession of former Auburn coed who caught it after ’69 Iron Bowl, claims it predates Bear’s
* That time David Housel punked the SEC with fake recruits
Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Want to advertise?
Leave a Reply