Charlestown Marathoner Relieved to Find Family Safe

When Charlestown resident Will DiTullio heard about the explosions at the finish line of Monday’s Boston Marathon, it wasn’t his safety that immediately concerned him but that of the seven members of his family—including his wife and four-month-old son—who were waiting in the stands for him to complete the race

DiTullio, 32, was in the Brookline area, nearing the final stretch of his second Boston Marathon, when he noticed a missed call from his wife on his iPhone, which he was using for music during the run.

“At first I was sort of agitated because I thought she was calling to encourage me, but at that point in the race I just wanted to finish. Then I noticed about a minute or two later that my sister had called. Then I began to worry a little bit,” DiTullio said.

His wife and infant son were waiting in the stands along with his sister, young nephew and other family members.

“I called my wife and she was in tears. She said there was an explosion at the finish line, and she wanted to make sure that I was OK because they had noticed that my pace—I could have been there at the time.”

In what may have been a fortunate turn of events, DiTullio had begun cramping up toward the end of his race and because of it was off his usual pace.

“At the time I was disappointed in my results. But looking back now it was a fortunate thing for myself and my family,” he said.

All of DiTullio’s family members were accounted for and uninjured in the explosions, able to reunite a short time later.

When he was just beyond mile 25, outside Kenmore Square, DiTullio got stopped behind a mass of runners that had been forced back from the area.

“No one knew what was going on,” he said.

The girlfriend of a friend who was running with DiTullio picked them up after they walked back to Brookline. They also picked up a female runner who was concerned about her husband and children waiting at the finish line. They gave her a ride back to her house in Belmont where she was relieved to find her husband’s car in the driveway, DiTullio said.

“It was a pretty tough day,” he said. “I’m so aggravated with the whole situation in the sense that there are so many thousands and thousands of people that work so hard and leave so much money for all these great charities—and then there were all of these disabled runners; I saw people in wheelchairs, I saw blind runners, I saw runners with prosthetic legs, I saw small people running—people from across the world were subjected to this. It’s just a sad, sad day.”

Despite the emotions and tragedy of the day, DiTullio said he is already planning to run the Boston Marathon again next year.

“I want to do it. I can’t sit back and allow these people to dictate how we’re going to run our lives, to make us run scared,” he said.