Hoboken Runner Finishes Race Minutes Before Bomb Goes Off

Ellen Dowling had just finished her sixth Boston Marathon on Monday afternoon, had reunited with her parents behind the finish line and was making her way toward the buses when she heard it. 

From a block and a half away, it sounded like a "very loud boom," she said. 

Seeing how the Patriot’s Day Parade had just ended, she assumed it was a cannon.

“We really thought it was a cannon. My parents had been watching the parade earlier that had cannons,” said Dowling, 40. 

Then they heard a second “more muted” bang. Still, she and her parents weren't alarmed. 

“Our first thought wasn’t ‘this is something awful,’” she said.

But it was.

Two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three — among them an 8-year-old boy — and injuring 130.

It wasn’t until Dowling met up with her fellow runners at the Rattlestick, a popular bar about a block and a half from the finish line, that she learned what had happened.  

When Dowling walked into the bar, the atmosphere was still jubilant and familiar. A lot of runners had already finished the race and were there to celebrate, after months of grueling training. 

About 50 television screens inside the sports bar showed runners crossing the finish line, when suddenly all the screens changed at once, and the finish line was covered in white smoke, she said. News reports said there had been two explosions by the finish line.

"The entire atmosphere in the bar changed," Dowling recalled in a phone interview on Tuesday.

Once all the Hoboken Harriers Club members were accounted for — Dowling and fellow member Lynne Gerbehy were the last two to arrive at the bar — she focused on trying to get in touch with friends at home to tell them she was OK. 

"It was a challenging environment," Dowling said, adding that it was impossible to access the Internet and difficult to reach the outside world with her Blackberry. "It was radio silence and then I’d get like 40 texts at a time," she said.

It took about six tries to post on Facebook that she was OK.

As the initial shock wore off and more information became available, it dawned on Dowling how close she had come to the explosions. 

"The combination of this is particularly bitter. It's the biggest day of the year in Boston—it’s the oldest most prestigious marathon," she said. 

"The bombs were placed so they'd take out legs," Dowling said. "It's this horrific irony."

Dowling, who has lived in Hoboken for 12 years, is a fervent runner and has ran 74 marathons. Last year she ran a marathon in every state.

Monday's events will not change her ways, she said. She will continue to race, continue to support running organizations.

"I will run Boston next year," she said, "I’m not scared of it."

After she found out about the bombings on Monday afternoon, Dowling and her parents made their way to their car and drove back to Hoboken as soon as they could.

"We were there," said Dowling, "but for a block and a half."