Colleen Nelson, a Wall Street Journal staff reporter, finished the Boston Marathon on Monday just minutes before the explosions that killed two and injured more than 100.
She writes:
I crossed the finish line of the Boston Marathon a little later than I had hoped—at about three hours and 49 minutes—but was relieved to be done. I limped forward on Boylston, grabbing Gatorade and retrieving my finisher’s medal.
I’d made it several yards past the finish line when I heard the first startling boom.
I kept walking but only took a couple more steps when I heard it again: Boom!
Cheers were replaced by silence and confusion. Farther away, I could hear screams.
“Was that a bomb?” runners asked one another. Was someone shot? Someone pointed to a nearby construction site and suggested that perhaps a crane had fallen.
I was just far enough away that I couldn’t see the gory scene unfolding a block away. There, injured and bloodied spectators who had cheered me on a few minutes earlier now were being rushed to medical tents originally set up for hobbled runners.
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