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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Gainesville runners safe after Boston Marathon

<p>A Boston Marathon competitor and Boston police run from the area of an explosion near the finish line in Boston on Monday. (AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Ken McGagh)</p>

A Boston Marathon competitor and Boston police run from the area of an explosion near the finish line in Boston on Monday. (AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Ken McGagh)

Explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday killed three people and injured about 150 — but local participants were not among them.

“As far as we know, all of the runners from Gainesville are safe and accounted for,” said Meredith DeFranco, a doctor of physical therapy at Shands at UF who finished her fourth Boston Marathon about an hour before the bombs went off.

Twenty Gainesville residents were among the about 27,000 people registered for the race, according to the 2013 Boston Marathon website.

The blasts occurred at about 2:45 p.m., scattering screaming runners and spectators. Buildings shook; windows broke. Bright bloodstains on the sidewalk emerged as the smoke cleared.

UF public relations alumna Michaela Trimble, now a global marketing communications and advertising graduate student at Emerson College, said her entire apartment jolted after the first explosion.

“Then I heard the second one,” she said. “And then, I heard people screaming.”

Trimble watched as customers evacuated from bars and restaurants. The streets were chaotic.

The scene looked unreal to Michelle Adams, who had turned on the television after getting out of her hotel room’s shower.

“I thought it was a movie,” the Gainesville Health and Fitness Center personal trainer wrote in an email. “I had just come through there, and that was not what it looked like.”

Authorities dubbed the incident a terrorist attack as the day wore on. As of press time, they were not sure whether the bombs were foreign or domestic, according to CNN.

“I don’t know when those bombs were there,” Trimble said. “I could have ran right past them the day before. I know I walked past them earlier today. . . it sickens me a little bit.”

Bostonians and visitors alike were “shocked, stunned and sad,” said UF biological scientist Mark Ou.

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“It’s just incredibly sad that people get hurt on such a day when people are celebrating,” he said.

Former Gators cross country runners Jeremy Criscione and Matt Hensley and their families were OK, wrote University Athletic Association spokeswoman Amanda Brooks in an email. She said they were the only Gator athletes who she knew participated in the marathon.

“It was very tragic,” Hensley wrote in a Facebook message. “My thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and family that were in the area.”

Despite the hotel lockdowns, uncertainty of Florida-bound flights and waves of bad news that seem to keep coming, the Gators and Gainesville residents remained hopeful.

Boston will bounce back stronger, Ou said, likening the situation to 9/11.

DeFranco said it’s important the marathon continues next year in memory of the injured and deceased.

“Runners are resilient,” she said. “The American people are resilient.”

Contact Julia Glum at jglum@alligator.org.

A Boston Marathon competitor and Boston police run from the area of an explosion near the finish line in Boston on Monday. (AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Ken McGagh)

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