The “Run For Boston 4/17” initiative supporting victims of the Boston Marathon bombings generated more than 500 groups with more than 20,000 runners worldwide, and more than 25,000 likes on the event’s Facebook page.
According to the Google map of run locations, more than 30 groups ran in Bryan/College Station.
Participating in the first run of the day and one in the evening that met at Consolidated High School was Boston Marathon runner Lan Ly of College Station.
She finished her fourth Boston Marathon at 1:47 p.m. and the bombs went off at 2:15.
At the time of the bombings, Ly and her family were in their hotel room preparing to go out to eat. Ly, a member of the planning committee for the Bryan/College Station marathon, learned of the bombings when race director Chris Field called to check on her.
Ly, her husband, and their six year old son spent the rest of the day at the hotel. The next morning they had no trouble getting to the airport and flying home as scheduled.
She and her husband didn’t talk about what happened until Wednesday. Ly says talking with other runners on Wednesday was the start of “going through the roller coaster of emotions” “and starting that healing process”.
She says she takes what happened in Boston personally because “I know that it could have been us easily at that finish line. Someone could have pulled that trigger an hour earlier and I would have been right there and my family would have been right there. And that’s probably what shocked us the most, was that this feeling of elation and joy in finishing the race and then wanting to celebrate and then having that all taken away within a second.”
Ly plans to continue to run in Boston every year and she’s “100 percent sure you will hear that from all other runners. We just won’t stop.”
WTAW’s Bill Oliver visits with Lan Ly.