Deerfield Marathoner Shares Boston Story

What is it like to stand 45 minutes and a few feet away from one of the nation’s most tragic moments?

Michael and Lori Harris of Deerfield know the answer. Lori was a few feet away from the site of the second bomb explosion at Monday’ Boston Marathon as she watched her husband, Michael, run past on his way to crossing the finish line.

Earlier: Three Deerfield Runners Finished Marathon Before Explosion

“I was at the site of the second blast (when) I saw him (Michael) run by me,” Lori said. “I was so grateful I saw him. If you look away for a second you could miss.” He finished the race in 3:42.1 approximately 45 minutes before cheers turned into screams.

After that they went through a very normal post race ritual. This was Michael’s fifth marathon and the first time he ran Boston. “I wanted to find my wife and get my gear,” he said. They then went to a nearby hotel where Fleet Feet, a Chicago based store and marathon training group, had a hospitality room. That is where things started to change.

“As I’m getting my massage someone said ‘a transformer blew,’” Harris said. “Five minutes later everyone was converging around the TV. We knew it wasn’t a transformer. We were waiting for more information.”

At that point, a lot of the joy of finishing the race was sucked out of the moment. The Harrises decided to walk back to their hotel. “We watched it on TV like everyone else except we could hear the siren and ambulances outside our window,” Michael said.

As they returned to their own hotel, the sounds of the moment made a strong impact. “I know the word surreal is overused but that’s what it was,” Lori said. “We were just thinking how was this possible?”

Michael ran the entire race with no sense the day would be anything but a very special 26-mile, 385-yard journey for a veteran marathoner because it was his first time running Boston. He was intent on finishing and enjoying it.

“I was of focused on finishing Boston,” Michael Harris said. “People (along the route) shouted out ‘rise to the occasion’ and ‘go Louisville,” he added referring to his shirt commemorating the University of Louisville’s national basketball championship last month.

Yet things were different. Though he completed the race 45 minutes before the bombs exploded killing three and injuring hundreds, he Michael was not sure of his finishing time. “Usually I’m obsessed with time,” he said. “With all this going on I never looked it up.”

The night before the race, the Harrises attended a dinner with other members of the Fleet Feet Group. One of the leaders told the runners they were about to part of an important occasion as participants on the 117^th running of the Boston Marathon.

“He told us we were going to be part of history,” Lori Harris said. “We had no idea how much a part of history we would be.”