Avon Boston Marathon Runner: 'I Was At the Finish Line When the Bombs Went Off.'

All eight Avon runners who ran the Boston Marathon Monday when there were explosions near the finish line are okay, Avon runner Maddy Yopchick wrote to Patch.

Yopchick posted on her Facebook page around 5 p.m. Monday that she and her family are safe and thanked people for their messages checking in on her.

"I finished about 40 minutes before the explosion and we were four blocks away in a Dunkin Donuts," Yopchick wrote to Patch on Facebook. She said that she "didn't see or hear the bombs," but did hear the police sirens and said " the city was in complete chaos!"

Avon runner Fernanda Jacobs, 45, wrote in a statement that she finished the race before the explosion.

"I was at the finish line when the bombs went off - was getting my medal," Jacobs said. "Heard the noise and saw the flames and smoke. Sarah Wallace had finished 15 minutes before that."

Wallace, 43, responded to an email from Patch and is also safe. She came home Monday night. Wallace is organizing the Avon Road Race at Pine Grove School this May. 


Avon residents David W. Cowan, 50, Joel Lehman, 52, Dickson Suit, 46, Matthew A. Trivella, 29 and Kimberly A. Mancini, 41 were also on the marathon entry list. Runners are sent out in different groupings at the marathon, staggering the start, so the Avon runners did not all start at the same time.

According to the results, all finished the race except Cowan, whose half-marathon time was 02:04:41. Complete results for the Avon runners are available on the Boston Marathon website.

Yopchick's family checked out of their hotel room a day early to return to Avon on Monday. After the explosion, getting back to their hotel was difficult, she wrote to Patch.

"We walked for over an hour trying to hail a cab to our hotel," Yopchick said. "A very kind local school teacher stopped and offered to drive us to our hotel. My kids were crying and I obviously was freezing and tired. She is an angel and I thankfully was able to get her name and address so I can thank her properly! It was a very sad scary day in Boston!"  

Jacobs' friend, Laura Riley, of Simsbury, was still running when the explosion happened, so "she got stopped and taken off the course at mile 25," she said. Jacobs knew people "sitting on the grand stands" watching the race and said that "they saw the injuries." 

"Scary end to a beautiful day for running," Jacobs said.