Status of Milford Runners, Families

Only a few of the Milford runners participating in the Boston Marathon on Monday finished the race. Most report they were stopped within a mile or two of the finish, following the explosions of two bombs near the finish line.

Of the 19 runners who entered, 18 started, according to the Boston Athletic Association website. Of the 18 runners, 12 have had friends report they are safe, and their families safe, on the Milford Patch Facebook page, or have been contacted personally.

These runners include: Erika Robertson, Georgeann Compagnone, Mike Nixon and family, Ken Poole and family, Mark and David Morganelli and family, Michelle Kennis, Caitlin Egan, Sandy Lehane, Kim Austin, and Sara Salmon. Erin Mahoney posted on the Hopkinton Running Club site that she did not run.

Here are some of their stories:

The pair separated about mile 15. David Morganelli, an attorney and Finance Committee member in Milford, said their families were waiting for them in the grandstand, directly opposite the first of the two explosions. When he was stopped, about a mile before the finish, he initially wasn't sure what had happened. But soon someone said that there had been an explosion at the finish. "My first thought was I've got to find my wife. She's sitting right there. I started to panic." His family and his brother's family were not hurt, but they witnesses the explosion and aftermath, and his nephew's girlfriend almost was struck with debris that flew near her head. The family members at the finish were separated in the pandemonium that followed the explosion. His wife and daughter would later be able to contact him, getting through eventually on a cell phone. "We were just hysterical. 'Is everyone OK? Tell me everyone is OK'," he recalled saying. He got a ride to Brookline from a stranger, who dropped him off where the family had parked their car. His wife and daughter ended up walking from the finish line to Brookline. They were reunited three hours after the explosion. Morganelli said he's still coming to terms with what happened. His daughter, he said, initially wanted to stand near where the bomb exploded. It was a point near the finish where spectators could reach out to high-five the runners. His wife hadn't wanted to push through the crowd, so they remained in the stands.

Ken Poole, 72, was running the marathon with his grandson, Eric Uganecz, 18. They were running side-by-side, about two minutes from the finish, and heading toward the turn on to Boylston Street. There was plenty of noise, Poole said, with people shouting along the sidelines. He noticed nothing different until everyone came to a dead stop. "It just stopped." He and his grandson, running his first marathon, had three family members waiting for them at the finish, including Poole's wife, his daughter, and granddaughter. The family members were scattered. Poole and his grandson walked to Kenmore Square, then back to the marathon's designated Family Meeting Area. They waited there an hour, but no one came. They then walked over to the commuter rail station at Back Bay, and stood outside for an hour. Eventually, he said, a Boston resident "took pity on me" and allowed him to use a land line phone in his apartment. He was able to use that phone to call his daughter, who had a New Zealand number, and leave a message. Eventually, the families reunited at the station. His family was not injured, although they witnessed the trauma at the finish. But his family will no longer be at the finish. "It would stop me from having my wife as a spectator at the finish." 

Runner Erika Robertson, running to raise money for Team Micky Ward Charities, said in a video interview posted on the Milford Police Facebook page she was stopped while running, short of the finish line, when she ran into "a wall of people." She was able to contact her boyfriend by cell phone, she reported, who was waiting near the finish. "He told me he was glad that I was alive because it was a bloodbath on Boylston Street."

was about a mile from the finish when police stopped the race. Finding her friend, who was not injured, took several hours, and Compagnone said the aftermath was chaotic in Boston. "It was like the end of the world for a moment."

The following runners completed the marathon, according to the BAA site: Sara Salmon, who finished in 3:57:45; Jacqueline Cronin, who finished in 4:12:16; Joceyln Thibeault, who finished in 3:46:22; Caitlin Egan, who finished in 3:28:48.