New London Runner Recalls Aftermath Of Boston Marathon Explosions

Following Monday's race, a friend who accompanied Scott Mindel to the Boston Marathon made a post on Facebook congratulating Mindel for completing the event with a personal best time. It was one of dozens of similar messages congratulating Mindel or wishing him well, but this one soon became a cause of concern.

The post tagged Mindell as being at the finish line of the marathon. Not long after, two explosions went off at that location.

People calling Mindell’s cell phone were greeted by a voice mail message. It would be another hour before Mindell was confirmed safe via Facebook. His phone battery had run out shortly before the attack.

“I had a couple hundred messages when I tried to get my phone back up and running,” he said.

Mindell, 26, a New London resident who works at Electric Boat, was making his second appearance in the marathon. He completed it with a time of 2:20:25, placing 30th in the field of thousands. It was a personal best, five minutes faster than his 2012 marathon time and two and a half minutes faster than his best marathon time. The time put Mindell across the finish line about an hour and a half before the explosions.

“I was only about a block and a half away,” he said. “I was in a bar with my friend and we didn’t hear anything.”

Mindel said the televisions in the bar all cut to a breaking news alert, and the venue went quiet as people realized what had happened. 

“When we were walking over there, all we saw were police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, helicopters flying around the area,” said Mindel. “People were in shock, just walking around stunned.”

The Fenway-Kenmore Patch was reporting three deaths and 176 injuries—including 17 critical—as a result of the explosions as of Tuesday afternoon. The site identified 29-year-old Medford native Krystie Campbell and 8-year-old Martin Richard as Dorchester as two of the people killed in the blast, while Boston University said one of the school's graduate students was the third person killed.

Four other New London runners were taking part in the race. Two finished before the attack and no splits were recorded for a third at the marathon’s results page. The fourth New London runner was coming up to the finish line after the attack and later confirmed with her employer that she was uninjured.

Mindel’s father had left the bar shortly before the explosion, but was walking away from the finish line. Mindel said his father heard the bangs and thought at first that it was a cannon to announce the four hour mark of the race.

Other people Mindel knew were closer to the scene of the disaster. One friend was at the finish line to see his girlfriend come in, and they left five or 10 minutes before the explosions. Another was coming down Boylston Street when the first blast occurred. Mindell said the friend and other runners looked up because they thought it was fireworks. The friend turned and ran in the opposite direction after seeing the second explosion.

Mindell said he was relieved that his friends were unharmed, but still coping with what happened.

“It was kind of tough,” he said. “It went from running my best time and being really happy about that. But now I don’t really care about that. There are a lot more things to worry about.”

Runners in the Boston Marathon must meet a qualifying time to participate, but can also participate if they raise a minimum amount of money toward a charitable cause, according to the Boston Athletic Association. Mindel said he was horrified that the attack took place when runners who were participating through the latter option were crossing the finish line.

“I don’t know what kind of statement they’re trying to make, but I don’t know why they would attack those kinds of people,” he said. “I don’t know why they would do it in general. It was pretty senseless regardless.”

Mindel said that at the start of this year’s event, he was considering running a marathon other than the Boston race next year. However, he said the attack would not deter him and he would return to next year’s event as either a participant or a spectator to cheer on friends.

“One way or another I’m going to be there,” he said.

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