Avon Boston Marathoner: ''I Still Can’t Comprehend What I Saw and What I Felt' After Explosions

Six-time Boston Marathon runner Fernanda Jacobs, 45, of Avon, said that she is normally very focused on her time during a Boston and high fives friends spectating as she runs past.

But this year was different, even before two bombs exploded near the finish line, killing three and wounding more than 100. Dealing with an injured hamstring leading up to the race, Jacobs didn't make it about her race time but rather having a good time. 

So, she stopped to chat with people she knew at certain mile markers. She soaked it all in on the "beautiful sunny day" in Boston on Monday for the 117th annual marathon.

“You make the best of what the day gives you for running," said Jacobs, who finished in 4:19:22, according to the results posted on the Boston Marathon website.

From kids handing out oranges and getting updates on the Red Sox score to hearing the deafening roar of the crowd on Heartbreak Hill, Jacobs said the spirit of the spectators make the Boston Marathon a true "community event." It's her favorite race.

U.S. National Guard officials and police were stationed along the course for crowd control, she said.

Before the race, Jacobs noticed bomb-sniffing dogs near the start. They were also near the finish line the night before when she and her friends took a picture there.

As is tradition, Jacobs had a big steak and pasta dinner the night before at her friend Frank Mairano's Boston home. Laura Riley, of Simsbury, Jill Wine, a Simsbury native and Minnesota resident, and two of Wine's friends from Minnesota dined with them as they all socialized before running the marathon. Mairona is a Canton native.

Jacobs' crew is usually the first to arrive in Hopkinton toward the start, which means use of the porter potties and access to the coffee before the big lines form. She was also one of the first in line for a pre-race massage.

“I just had so much fun even though I was in pain," Jacobs said. “It was one of the best Bostons for me.” 

Explosions Near the Finish Line 

But her happiness at the finish line was soon darkened when an explosion happened nearby about eight minutes later. 

"I was standing there getting my medal and you just felt the vibration," Jacobs said. "You heard the boom for the first one and then you turned around and saw this huge cloud of smoke shooting up toward the sky."

If she had done the usual high fives and wasn't battling an injury, she said she might have finished sooner and been in her hotel.

”I’m very lucky and all of us are," she said.

She, like many other runners, stood still in disbelief and confusion, thinking that a manhole might have burst. A police officer told runners, "everybody move forward" and "move away from the smoke," but Jacobs' feet remained planted.

She watched as people from the medical tent at the finish line raced toward the smoke.

“I was just amazed to see all the people running toward the cloud of smoke. Nobody thought about it," Jacobs said. “I have to give all of the volunteers and all of the medical people, they’re not trained for anything like this and they just went."

People with wheel chairs for runners were already stationed along the course as needed and were also there to assist.

“All of sudden you saw the second one go off," she said, which was closer to the last mile mark dedicated to the Sandy Hook victims. That one went "sideways." “You saw flames, massive flames in this one."

Barricades flew across the road. Jacobs said "you knew they were bombs after the second one.”

Observing people panicking in the grand stands spectating, she grew concerned about Riley's husband and son and a Mairano's wife, all watching from the grand stands. She headed to see if they were okay, but an officer stopped her and said that area was about to be blocked off. He sent her in the other direction.

Tired and unable to move fast after running for about 26 miles, she went to get her bag as she was told. 

As she walked by a stop for the T, Boston's metro line, transportation had halted and many travelers didn't know why.

Jacobs tried to call her friends in the grand stands, but cell phone service was down as a precaution to prevent accidental detonation of any other possible explosives. The first person she was able to get a text through to was fellow Avon marathoner Sarah Wallace, who had finished and was at her hotel. Jacobs responded to her about her injured hamstring and wrote "two bombs" went off.

Jacobs knew Riley was still on the course, so she went back to the hotel after an unsuccessful attempt to get her bag for her and watched the television coverage of the explosions. She emailed family members and friends to let them know she was okay after her phone battery died. 

As a mother of four kids, Jacobs said that hearing about the first death, 8-year-old Martin Richard, hit home, particularly months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December.

She said she thought, "Here we go all over again.”

Jacobs friends were not injured and one of them was pale as though he saw a ghost. Riley and Mairona's spouses saw people drenched in blood and missing limbs. While Riley's 19-year-old son did not see it, he heard the "boom," Jacobs said.

When Jacobs spoke to Patch on Wednesday, she was still fighting back tears.

“I still can’t comprehend what I saw and what I felt," Jacobs said. “The boom was unbelievable.”

She's run the marathon for six consecutive years, her best time during her third Boston at around 3:27.00. Each time she and her friends promise each other they'll run again next year. She already plans on doing a fall marathon and Simsbury's Iron Horse Half Marathon in June.

Will she and her friends be back for another Boston? 

”I know this is not going to stop any of us from going back to Boston," she said. 

When asked if the bombings affected her sense of security about running, Jacobs said, "no." Running is her "sanity," she said.

"It just makes me want to keep running, want to keep doing that," Jacobs said. "If I don’t I’m letting whoever did this win.”

Did you know someone who ran in the Boston Marathon Monday or who watched? Please share their stories in the comments and tell us your reactions to the news.