Stoughton Runners, Spectators Recount Chaotic Scene Following Boston Marathon Explosions

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

Mike Griffiths of Stoughton was just two tenths of a mile behind O'Donnell and was also stopped, he said. Griffiths, 34, was so close to completing a sixth Boston Marathon.  

But, 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, killing at least three and injuring well over 100 more, according to CBS Boston. 

As a result, nine of the 12 Stoughton runners who were still on the course were not able to finish.  

Greg Swartz, 51, was one of the three Stoughton runners who had already finished. His time of 3:12:29 was well before the chaos that would mar this year's Patriots Day and Marathon Monday. 

Swartz, who had completed his third Boston Marathon, and fourth marathon overall, was already at home in Stoughton when he heard about the events in Boston, he said. 

When he crossed the line, it was just another Boston Marathon finish.

"My run was going great. It was a beautiful day especially compared to the heat of last year," Swartz said.

The biggest obstacle at the time seemed to be running into a slight headwind of 10 to 15 miles per hour, he said. Swartz had his picture taken with Maria Stephanos of FOX 25, had his blisters taken care of in the medical tent (little did he know it would soon become a triage tent, he added), and "my concern at that point was trying to find my ride home."

Swartz watched the events unfold from home in "shock", his phone "going crazy" with people reaching out to him, and with him trying to find out if family and friends still running were alright. He said it was reminiscent to 9-11. 

Following the explosions, police and race officials soon started stopping the runners.

Griffiths was just far enough from the scene that he didn't hear the explosions, he said. The runners were unaware of what had happened, with many finding out what had unfolded from spectators in the area, he said.  

Griffiths had his cellphone on him and was able to get a ride back to his car from his running club. His family was watching earlier on the route in Wellesley. 

O'Donnell, like many runners, did not have his cellphone on him.

"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," O'Donnell, 19, a 2012 graduate of Oliver Ames, and a freshman at St. Anslem College, said.

Initially confused as to what was going on, O'Donnell said at first it "looked like a car accident" to him and officials were clearing the street. But like Girffiths, after talking with spectators, he found out what had happened just a half mile ahead on Boylston Street. 

Fearing another attack or explosion, O'Donnell said he "wanted to get out of there."

O'Donnell said he was able to borrow a phone and get in touch with his family by sending his girlfriend a text.

Once O'Donnell and the other runners realized what had happened, "The first thing that went through my mind was my family," he said. 

His father, Stoughton Fire Departmment Captain O'Donnell, was at the finish line. Captain O'Donnell quickly sprung into action, starting to help victims, his son said. 

O'Donnell said his father treated about a dozen people, saw two people already deceased, and saw limbs amidst the debris in what has been described as a horrifying scene. 

Eventually, O'Donnell and his family, all safe, met near Fenway Park.

Plenty of Stoughton residents were also in the area as spectators. 

Like Captain O'Donnell, Mary Coulter-Bennett, a Stoughton resident and group fitness coordinator at the Stoughton YMCA, was watching from the grandstands at the finish line, across the street from where the explosion took place.   

Her brother, William Coulter, was running and she was there to support three members of the YMCA staff also running. Her brother was about a mile away from finishing. Luckily he is accounted for, as are the staff members, she said. 

"All of a sudden there was just a huge bang," Coulter-Bennett said. "A huge cloud of smoke" filled the air. Then, where people were once standing across the street from her there was now "nothing," she recalls.

"I turned my head away from it," Coulter-Bennett said. "We did our best to exit as quick as we could...[We] heard the second blast and figured there would be more."

Coulter-Bennett gave credit to those who ran towards the explosions, looking to help. 

"The number of people who ran right at it to help was just amazing," she added. 

One of those stepping up to help was Stoughton soldier Geoffrey Curtis, who after attending to victims at the scene went to Massachusetts General Hospital to give blood, Channel 7 reported. 

"I've been to Afghanistan and it was just like that," he told Channel 7 of the scene at the finish line. 

Katie Daly, a junior at Stoughton High School, was also in Boston watching the marathon with a group of friends, a little further from where the blast went off. 

"Leslie Camillo, Julia Bobeck and I went in to Boston [Monday] morning to watch the marathon, we were at the 26 mile mark watching the first runners finish and then we got up and walked around Newbury Street, then were looking for Chipotle and we were walking towards the Copley right outside of Arlington station on Boylston Street when we heard the bombs and immediately saw smoke," Daly said. 

"People were in panic and crying, turning around and running while police were running towards the explosions. We walked about half a mile To Panera and waited there, all subways were closed and it was pretty chaotic because nobody knew if it was an accident. Finally Julia's parents picked us up and now we are home safe."

The Berkowsky family of Stoughton made their annual Patriots Day trip into Boston, settling in at the 26-mile marker, talking with tourists and taking pictures of the runners passing by. 

"We were waiting for a friend of ours from Stoughton, Stu Weiner, who was running, had been tracking his 10K intervals and he was suppose to pass by our spot at the 26 mile mark around 3:15. So we were getting ready to take his picture and greet him when total panic and chaos erupted just before 3 p.m. as we witnessed the site and sounds of the two massive explosions that went off 10 seconds apart, less than 500 yards away, followed by the thousands of runners and spectators running and screaming, all around us and near our location, in the opposite direction," Kevin Berkowsky recalls.

"The panic and fear on the faces of everyone around us, including our kids left an indelible mark on all of us that none us will ever forget. Seeing everyone running away and the continuous parade of emergency and state police vehicles that passed us on our way out of Boston, it shook us in a way I can't even begin to explain or fully comprehend, everything seemed to be going so slowly yet so fast, almost as if we were watching a movie," he said.

Swartz said the tragic events of April 15 will not deter him from running the Boston Marathon again, noting how strong the police presence is. 

But Swartz acknowledged he was lucky this year in a lot of ways.

"I'm sitting on the couch [after finishing the race] thinking what if that went off an hour earlier," he said. 

O'Donnell said he strained his hip flexor a few weeks ago, slowing his pace down a bit Monday afternoon. It was a "lucky injury," he said, realizing he may have been that much closer to where the explosion was if he was running even two minutes faster. 

"God was with me today," O'Donnell said.