Two blasts rocked runners and onlookers in the final stretch of the Boston Marathon Monday afternoon. The blasts killed three and injured as many as 140 more according to the Associated Press.
Video immediately following the blast showed a chaotic scene where shattered glass and smoke enveloped the area near the finish line. The first explosion occurred at about 2:50 p.m. local time. Seconds later, another explosion took place about 500 feet away.
Video of the blasts also showed runners scrambling amid the chaos. One runner, identified as 78-year-old Bill Iffrig of Lake Stevens, Wash., could be seen collapsing from the blast. He later walked away.
Three of the marathoners have connections to College of the Canyons.
Betsy Kenyon, an adjunct photography instructor, finished the race about 30 minutes before the first explosion.
Angela Young-Reynolds, a staff member at the Center for Early Childhood Education, had also finished the race and was two blocks from the explosions.
Curtis Wynkoop, husband of COC photography department chair Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, was a block from the explosions after receiving medical attention after the race.
Kenyon had completed her third Boston Marathon and met her husband, Richard, at a meeting area beyond the finish line when she heard the blasts.
“They sounded like they happened right after each other. It was almost like they were on top of each other. But you don’t think its an explosion – even though it sounds exactly like an explosion – your brain says its something like metal, like somebody dropped some metal.”
Kenyon’s husband, Richard, had been watching the race between the area where the two blasts eventually occurred. They had cleared the area by the time of the blasts.
“You start to play back in your head, ‘What if I was slower?’ What if I walked when I felt like walking?’ You always feel like walking.”
Kenyon didn’t gauge the gravity of the situation until she saw authorities rushing to the scene behind her and people’s faces as she was leaving the area.
“I started seeing people in their street clothes running. There were these tense expressions on people’s face when they were on their telephones.”
Kenyon seemed most dismayed at the timing of the blasts. The blasts occurred at a time when casual marathoners – ”moms or older people,” according to Kenyon – were finishing up.
“It’s a strange time to target that area,” she said. “I feel so much for all those people there who were running or watching. It’s just a pathetic thing to target.”
Kenyon also laments that she believes the atmosphere of Boston Marathon will be different in the future.
“[The marathon] is so spirited and sweet. It’s so good natured,” she said. “There’s such an innocence, its such an innocent event. its just awful to think about metal detectors at the next one.”
“This is the third one I’ve run, and I just don’t feel good.”
COC instructor describes the scene in Boston moments after marathon blasts
