ARKANSAS, USA — It’s been a decade since the bombing at the Boston Marathon. On Monday, April 17, 2013, nearly 30,000 runners set off to run the 127th Boston Marathon. On that day three people lost their lives and a hundred were injured when a bomb went off near the finish line of the race. We are hearing from two local runners who were there that day who we also spoke to 10 years ago.
“I still think of that time, and I'm so glad I didn't get hurt. I feel sorry for the people that did, it's just terrible. I still pray for them,” said Mary Jo Brinkman.
Brinkman, from Fort Smith, was one of those runners who set out on the Boston marathon not knowing the horror that would come hours later.
“I had almost finished the race and these people were standing on the sidelines saying you have to stop, and I was like, I'm a half a mile from the finish, I’m not stopping,” she said.
Brinkman kept running until being stopped by a police officer who told her there was no finish line because there had been an explosion. She says she was fortunate that day that she had to stop along the route because her foot was bothering her. She says had she not stopped, she would have been very close to where the two bombs exploded.
Lance Osborne, from Fayetteville, also ran the Boston Marathon in 2013. He crossed the finish line and caught a cab back to his hotel to rest for a while before meeting back up with his family who were watching the marathon.
“I got a text from a buddy of mine, Craig Lyle asking if I was okay. I was like, 'Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired.' And then he said, we heard some bombs went off,” said Osborne.
Osborne wasn’t able to reach his family at first which he says was very scary.
“There were a lot of people that were a lot less fortunate who suffered, but I didn't hear it, and I didn't see it. I saw a lot of chaos whenever going to pick up my family though,” he said.
Brinkman went on to run the Boston Marathon the following year, but Osborne says he has not run the Boston Marathon since 2013.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this article mistakenly spelled Mary Jo Brinkman's last name as Brickman.
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