9/11 Victim's Father Speaks Out on Boston Blasts

Tom Frost has run two Boston Marathons and lost a daughter in the 9/11 terror attacks, so when explosions ripped along the viewing area near the finish line to the 2013 race, he felt the sting.

At least two people have died and 120 have been injured at the world's most famous 26-mile race.

"It's a very special race to me," Frost said. "It saddens me and makes me nervous for next year."

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Frost ran the 1999 marathon with daughter Lisa Frost—in her sophomore year at Boston University where she would eventually become a department valedictorian—cheering him on at Mile 16 and at the finish. She took a photo of him—about 50 feet from one of Monday's blast sites—and was a race volunteer in 2000.

After the young Rancho Santa Margarita woman's death aboard United Flight 175 into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Frost ran the race in 2002 in Lisa's memory, pausing for a moment of silence at the base of Heartbreak Hill and to conduct a couple of TV interviews of about three minutes. 

"This is horrible," Frost said on Monday. "Why do they have to pick on those people. I wish this would all stop. I know it's not going to. These people who are doing this, whoever it is this time, they're just adamant about hurting innocent people. I just wish they would stop.

"We can have a peaceful world if we want it, we just have to want it."

Frost, now 59, said the time he ran in 2002 of 4 hours 11 minutes, would have put him near the blast zone on Monday.

He recalled that "it's extremely crowded" at the finish line, which is permanently painted onto Boylston Street. Even after the finish, "it's chaos," he said, "you have to walk quite a distance before getting to the family meeting area."

In the years since Lisa Frost's death, her mother Melanie Frost has been afflicted with several health issues, including a stroke about two months ago. "She's doing OK but she's in a senior home now," Frost said.

Over the last 11 years Tom Frost has been one of the more visible surviving family members of 9/11 victims and has tried to preserve his daughter's legacy and ensure there was a face to the victims.

"Last year, I was a speaker at the state of Kansas Victims of Crime Convention, and it was a great honor," Frost said. "My message was to stand tall, do what you can to keep going, and keep on with your life."

It's a message for today as well.