Some Evanston residents and members of the Northwestern community participated today in the Boston Marathon shortly before deadly explosions went off near the finish line.
Seventeen of the 19 Evanston residents who registered for the race showed up, according to tracking data on the Boston Marathon’s website. Most finished before two bombs exploded shortly before 2 p.m., killing two people and injuring at least 90 more.
Richard Barbera, president of the Northwestern Triathlon Club, finished the race before the attacks and said he was eating at a restaurant two blocks away from the finish line at the time of the incident. The McCormick senior didn’t hear about it until his girlfriend received a text message asking if he was fine.
Evanston resident Kevin Valentine, however, witnessed the explosions just after crossing the finish line.
“I was 10 minutes finished when I saw the smoke go off and heard it,” said Valentine, who teaches at North Central College in Naperville. “There were worried-looking volunteers, and they shooed us all away.”
NU acknowledged the incident in a Facebook post this afternoon.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all those impacted by today’s explosions in Boston,” the University said. “We have many members of the Northwestern community in and/or from that great city. We’re thinking of you all this afternoon.”
Elisse Kavensky (Weinberg ’12), a student at the Boston University School of Medicine, was watching the marathon with her friends at the 22nd mile when the explosions went off.
“We started getting texts and notifications that there was an explosion at the finish line,” Kavensky said. “We just went inside and watched the news. They were outside pulling all the runners off the path.”
Patrick Svitek and Cat Zakrzewski contributed reporting.
— Manuel Rapada
